A Mystery to the Both of Them
by Puppy with Sharp Teeth
Summary: Akira follows Shuji across the country at Nobuta's insistence and his own, to make sure that Shuji's doesn't die of lonliness. Of course, there's also the issue of his little crush on Shuji...Shuji to Akira. Slash.
1. Familiar Comforts

**Title: **A Mystery to the Both of Them

**Chapter**: Familiar Comforts

**Series: **Nobuta wo Produce

**Pairing: **Shuji to Akira of course w

**Genre: **Comedy and Romance

**Rating: **Um, don't really know…PG-13? R? I've never written a fic quite like this so…you decide, kay? Methinks the rating will probably go up for later chapters. In which case, it'll end up NC-17. Cross your fingers for me…

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Shuji OR Akira. Only the story itself is mine, the rest belongs to whoever owns Nobuta wo Produce, the lucky bastards…

**Warning:** A hell of a lot more fluff than I intended, and smutty goodness in later chapters.

**A/N: **I blame BOTH my muses for this one, and of course the last 5 minutes of the drama literally being the gayest thing since L'arcenCiel's name. (in case your French is a little rusty, it means, 'Rainbow.') The first chapter of this fic is mostly Akira's POV during the time he was on his way to Hokkaido to be with Shuji, the rest is mixed. I would also like to add, AKIRA IS SOOO DIFFICULT TO WRITE! My hat goes off to Shuji/Akira and other Nobuta fanfic writers that came before me. I have even more respect for you guys. w

For Kusano Akira, the biggest mystery for him was how the hell Nobuta found out about his feelings for Shuji. He'd always thought he was a good actor; after all, it was more fun to see how people reacted when they found out he was not a complete moron, and actually had brains behind that hyperactive personality of his than if they'd know it all along. And more fun was always good, wasn't it?

Akira was very good at pretending not to be in love, while pretending to be in love at the same time.

He had thought that if he acted well enough and convincingly pretended to be head-over-heals in love with the girl he was producing, neither Nobuta nor Shuji, or his father for that matter, would know that he was in love with his best friend. His father was just trying to get over the fact that his son would probably just end doing whatever the hell he wanted rather than succeed the company. He did not need to know, Akira reasoned, that his kid was gay to boot.

Akira would find excuses to touch Shuji as often as he could, even if he was dodged or swatted away, just so that he could go on pretending. A touch here, a joke there, the odd bear hug here and there; just to give him his Shuji fix. He even made himself obvious sometimes, but disguised it with a giggle and a "kon kon!" As long as he didn't slip up too much, he could be around the unsuspecting boy long enough to restrain himself from jumping the guy, which, he reasoned, Shuji might find a little awkward and confusing.

He pretended and acted and hid well behind the façade of loving Nobuta. He felt sort of guilty for lying about her, especially since he knew how fragile the girl was, but he was desperate; if she hadn't showed up, he wouldn't have been able to last another month around Shuuji without his self titled "Pretend-not-to-like-Shuuji-in-that-way-but-still-be-his-friend-plan-kon-kon!" For a little while, Akira had even tried to convince himself that he loved her, to try and get over Shuji, for his friends sake. But he knew he was lying. He knew he was lying because his best friend, and three year obsession was Kiritani Shuji, master of masks and friendly lies.

He thought that his act would be enough. He was wrong.

Nobuta had turned to him, as Shuji's moving van drove away and he felt his heart shattering into tiny little fragments, and told him that that he shouldn't let someone he cared about and loved leave, without so much as telling them how he felt. For several minutes, he could only stand there and gape. As soon as he remembered that he was actually capable of speech, he yelled "AKIRA SHOCK!" -throwing his arms up in surprise in the process- and asked how she knew, and, exactly _how long_.

She had answered simply; said that when she had gotten comfortable around them, she noticed it. Akira loved Shuji, and pretended hard not to. Sometimes, he would try a little too hard to get close to Shuuji, and looked kind of sad when he got brushed off.

However, in the long run, it was not important how she knew, she said, but that it **was** true. She told him that he had to go. Nobuta had never surprised him more. Not only did she know, but she was going to actually get him to follow Shuuji.

Akira smiled as he grabbed his bag, filling it with several bottles his beloved mamechichi soy milk, as many clothes as the suitcase could hold, the doll Katherine had given him, and the three legged friendship pig from Chile that Shuuji's mom had bought them all. He would really miss living with the old tofu man, and he was _really_ going to miss Nobuta, especially after they had gotten her to slowly but surely start to gain confidence. But he was happy that he was going to be with Shuji again. They would be two in one again, Shuji to Akira, the way it should be.

'Maybe I could even tell him', thought Akira with a smile. But it quickly left his face at the next thought. Of course he couldn't tell Shuji, at least not right away. His friend had, for lack of a better word, issues, with how the world perceived him, even if he was trying to get over them. That would be like cornering a rabbit and hoping it wouldn't run away. No, he would have to bide his time, as always, and pretend everything was normal. Well, normal for Akira, that is.

When he had finished chucking his stuff into his now bulging bag, he struck and pose and yelled, "Love power, CHUU NYUU!", said a hasty goodbye to the tofu, before grabbing his bike and cycling his crazy ass off to his father's building.

When he got there, he rode his bike into the building, ignoring the horrified stares of many people, and stopped in front of the front desk.

"Yo, Miss Secretary, I need to see my dad, where is he?!", he yelled, much to the irritation of the lady work at the desk. She looked him up and down with disapproval. "That depends, who is you father, and what do you want?"

Akira looked annoyed for a second then said in his usual loud tone, "My dad is President Kusano! I need to see him to tell him I'm going to borrow a heli-heli so I can go live near Shuji-kun in Hokkaido!"

Once again, she looked at him as if he had just announced that he was the next President of Burundi. She could feel a distinct headache coming on, confirming her suspicions that today was going to suck.

"President Kusano is in an important meeting right now. If you would like, you can wait till he comes out in two hours, or I could take a message." she said as calmly any person when dealing with the spazz that was Akira.

"Just tell him everything I just told you, and tell him I'll send the heli-heli right back! Kay? Bye!" he said, skipping to the elevator.

"Wait, what about this bike, you can't just leave it here, young man! Hey!!!"

"Bye!" he yelled. As the doors closed, he gave her his signature kon-kon hand gesture while waving with the other hand. Ten minutes later Akira had gotten into the "borrowed" helicopter and commenced flying to Hokkaido. Luckily for him, his father's pilot had given him lessons at his fathers insistence, so he wasn't worried about landing. He had hardly given thought to where he would land the damn thing, because he was rather busy imagining the look on Shuji's face when he saw Akira at his new school. He giggled at the thought.

"DASHING AKIRA! SHUUJI-KUN! I'M COMING TO SAVE YOU FROM LONELINESS! YOSH!!!" o

Several hours later, Akira landed in Hokkaido. It would have taken less time, had he actually known where he was going, and not have had to startle some poor business people in a high rise building he had asked for directions, without bothering to land the helicopter first.

There was a lot of commotion as he landed the helicopter in the school field, which was an interesting change of scenery from the usual tranquil view of the ocean on the other side of the school building. Akira smiled as he got out, giving all the surprised spectators konkon gesture as a greeting. The school principal run up to him. Needless to say the man did not look pleased.

"Who the hell are you?! What the hell is this?! Answer me!" he yelled at the ditsy boy in front of him.

"Kusano Akira desu!!!" he replied, temporarily blinding the man with a yellow transfer form that Nobuta and he had run around getting signed and faxed back and forth and filled in prior to his hurried packing. The principal read over the paper suspiciously. When he concluded that there everything seemed to check out he said, "Ah, so you're the new transfer student that was supposed to arrive today. We got the forms faxed to us by your vice-principal. Please, in future, call first, and come by car. Go with Mrs. Akumato over there, she's your new councilor. She will give you your uniform and schedule. You can start school tomorrow."

The man walked away with a frown still on his face, but Akira just kept smiling and ignoring the mixed looks of shock and admiration coming from the students crowding around the helicopter.

'Shuji-kun will be sooo surprised to see me! I will make him love me in no time! Now, I just need an apartment. Thank goodness for gold credit cards…'

And indeed, with a little help from his dad's plastic money, he got himself a nice little apartment near school, with view-to-die-for of the beach and the ocean after he got his all classes picked.

That was the day _before_ Shuji arrived.

On the day Shuji arrived, Akira could not sit still for two seconds. He didn't even bother with getting breakfast. (Not that he had many groceries to make it with anyway, he had vaguely gone to the supermarket with thoughts along the lines of, ' Oh, dead Kami-sama! I hope they have mamechichi in Hokkaido! Akira need mamechichi! LOTS OF SOY MILK! Shuuji-kun will need soy milk!')

He walked to school from his apartment thinking about what he say to Shuji. Alright, so it was more like running like an athlete on steroids. He ran so fast, he only realized on arrival that he was there a full hour earlier than he should have been. Oh well, that gave him plenty time to pretty himself up in front of the mirror in the boys bathroom. He never usually cared _that _much about his appearance, but then he had never before planned to actually make Shuji his.

Oh, yes. He had decided that morning, to hell with biding his time. You only lived once, and he would be damned if he would lose to the girls that would undoubtedly start to orbit Shuji like annoying over-made up moons around a very hot, slim bodied, long haired planet. Oh dear, it seemed his mind was starting to wander into dangerous (though extremely pleasant and very appealing) territory. Akira giggled. What would Shuji think if he knew his best friend was imagining him naked? "Well, I'll find out soon enough!" he said to his hand puppet, before giving it a small peck.

Maybe they could go to the beach, like Shuji had said occasionally when they were still in Tokyo with Nobuta. Or maybe they could go drink soy milk together at the mall, or…other things that seemed like a lot of fun to Akira lately…"NO! Akira is being a pervert! BAD AKIRA, BAD!!!" he yelled, slapping himself mentally and physically until the thoughts subsided, if only for a few minutes. He left the bathroom chanting "No dirty thoughts! Pure thoughts! Dirty thoughts BAD! Shuji pure, not dirty!"

He walked to class and ceased his mantra immediately when he saw other students inside. If he was going to have any chance in hell of convincing Shuji that he loved him, he couldn't let people find out so soon and start spreading rumors about them. Akira might not have cared what people thought of him, but he knew Shuji desperately wanted to be seen as a good person and to be liked, and rumors would not help that. Especially since Shuji hadn't even made a first impression yet.

He sat down in an empty desk at the back of the room and looked around at his new classmates. A couple of them were smiling and waving back at him. Two guys spotted him, and with purposeful looks in their eyes walked over to him, bowed, and simultaneously stuck out there hands for him to shake. When both of them realized they had acted at the same time, they scowled at each other.

Akira was experiencing slight feelings of dejá vu; the two boys reminded him of the Destiny Duo from back Tokyo. Although they looked nothing like the pair, they were definitely identical twins of each other. The two both had the same mop of untamed black hair, and the same yellowish-brown eyes. They each also gave the impression of wanting to kill the other, which was surprisingly the case.

The boys in front of him each took one of his hands and shook it, to Akira's surprise. He was not at all familiar with people wanting to get to know him, as people usually avoided in case whatever the hell they thought he had was contagious. He stared at his hand in bewilderment for a couple seconds then smiled at them and treated them to a cheery "Kon kon!"

Although both boys were equally confused by the strange hand gesture, neither let it deter them for more than a few seconds from the chance of making a rich and possibly very powerful new friend. "Hajimemashita! I am Watari Umi! I hope we can be friends, Kusano-san. Let me tell you a bit about-" he started, before he was shoved aside by the other boy.

"Hi! I'm Watari Yamazaki. If you want, I could show you around the school if-" the boy was in turn cut off by his irate twin shoving back twice as hard. "Please ignore my idiot brother, he was born without a brain and miraculously seems to function to this day without one."

Akira watched with a small amount of interest as the twins got more and more violent with one another, forgetting all previous attempts at impressing Akira.

Yup. This school might just turn out to be really interesting. It was a shame, he thought half-heartedly, that he would so busy seduc-having fun with Shuji, to get to know anyone closely. But then again, several of them, by the looks of it, had a bad habit of pulling fake smiles out of their asses and sucking up to people that could help them gain the popularity they didn't deserve. Unlike Nobuta, who deserved to well-known and loved. Akira briefly felt a twinge of guilt as he thought of the fact that he had left Nobuta alone. He hoped that she would be alright by herself, be able stand on her own and face the world. He knew though, as strong as Nobuta was becoming, Shuji would not be able to face a world were he was anonymous and friendless, and Akira wasn't so sure he would last one day without Shuji's comforting presence.

Akira sat deeply engrossed in his thoughts (which was pretty damn rare) and so he did not notice just over half a dozen easily excitable girls slip into the classroom to see the guy who had only yesterday landed a helicopter in their school's sports field and climbed out of it wearing a very appropriate million-dollar smile.

He noticed them only too late. That day, Kusano Akira was introduced to the mysterious and frightening creature know as: The Fangirl.

One agonizing half hour and many very annoying screams of "Kyah!!!! Kusano-sama! KAKKOI DESU NE!!!! Can I fly in your helicopter, please?!!!" later, the teacher finally told everyone to get to their seats and announced that there was _another _new student today. Akira leaned against the back wall of the classroom, staring at the door intently, ignoring the excited whispers around him, anticipating the arrival of the object of his affection for three years. Three years that felt like an eternity. This time, he would not waste his time waiting for the courage to tell Shuji. He had almost let Shuji slip away from him, vanishing like an oasis mirage to a dying man in a desert, that would cruelly leave him with nothing but a desperate need and a pain in his heart.

No, this time, he would tell Shuji, even if it he got rejected. There were two things Akira really hated; Men that made girls cry, and having to keep secrets from his friends, because Akira liked being free of lies and half-truths. He didn't like everything covered up in a mask. That was why he hated when Shuji became Fake Shuji. True Shuji didn't wear a mask; he didn't need to. Akira saw through Fake Shuji right away, unlike the rest of the school, so Shuji never bothered wearing a mask around the taller boy. It was for that very reason that he had fallen for True Shuji.

Well, that, and the fact that Shuji was gorgeous.

He really couldn't help but think about that last fact as Shuji walked through the door of their new classroom, that would soon be something comfortable now that they were together again. He looked slightly nervous with an unfamiliar audience, but obviously confident enough with his skill at making people like him not to be terrified at the prospect of a new class.

"Yoroshuku onegaishimasu, boku wa Kiritani Shuji desu."

Akira grinned and waited for the inevitable moment when his friend would notice him and break his concentration on charming the class. It came, and was better than he could've expected – the look on Shuji's face as he glanced at the ocean outside and let his gaze travel to the one person by the window who looked oddly familiar, before realizing that there was a very important reason the face was so familiar, was priceless. His eyes bulged as he dropped his jaw and the bag he was carrying, forgetting completely where he was and who was watching.

The break of character was wonderful to Akira. He smiled even wider as he removed his glasses. Ones that he didn't really need, since he already had contacts, but he felt they made him look quite sexy (A/N: and we all know how true _that_ is). His eyes sparkled as he kissed his hand puppet, and his lips formed the words that Shuji had heard a million times back home –words that had been permanently engrained in his memory- "Kon Kon…"

The slightly unperceptive teacher asked Shuji if there was anything wrong. "Nothing, I'm just a little nervous, that's all ," said the boy, looking a little flustered and finding it a tad hard to regain his composure after seeing his best friend here of all places, the last place he would have expected. Shuji wondered briefly whether or not what he was seeing was an illusion, and tried to convince himself that was all it was, an illusion. A product of too little sleep the night before at worrying whether or not he would be able to adapt to a place to which he had no connections whatsoever.

Up until the moment the Akira 'illusion' started clapping and drumming on the walls with a cheeky grin plastered across its all too real face.

This realization, unfortunately for Shuji, lead to him losing it completely and yelling, "WHY?!" to the surprise of the entire classroom, minus a now hysterically giggling Akira.

After the initial ruckus caused by Shuji's outburst (which he apologized for profusely when he recovered from shock), the classroom reluctantly settled down for the first period of school. Some of the more gossip-prone girls were still whispering excitedly and kept looking back at both new boys and giggling.

"Oh my god they're so hot! I want Kiritani-san to be my boyfriend! He's got to be a model or something. That tramp Yukie would be soooo jealous! Even Ami's boy-toy isn't as hot as him!" said one girl when the teacher left the room to get something photocopied.

She was the local walking cliché popular girl, and proud of it. She was the kind of person who would make the _old_ Bando-chan say "Don't be so mean!"

"Oh please, Yuriko-chan. Will you look at Kusano-kun? He's gorgeous! AND he arrived in a helicopter! I bet he must be loaded! If he's single, I'd totally dump my toy." said a second girl, Ami, who was well-known as the local gold-digger.

"Oh, I'm sure he is! Maybe he's some sort of celebrity. He looks like some kind of boy-band member!", squealed a third girl, named Sadako, known to occasionally receive restraining orders from several guys not too pleased with her creepy habit of stalking them and watching them from trees with a pair of binoculars.

'I'll take either of them. Kiritani AND Kusano. It shouldn't be too hard either, I'll make sure they take notice. I'll have 'em both. Kiritani's hot, and Kusano's got money. I just have to make sure neither of them knows I'm dating them both.'

That thought, oddly enough, was shared by all three girls.

Completely oblivious to the schemes forming at that very moment, Shuji shook his head in wonder and disbelief at the strange boy sitting in the desk right next to his, at the very back of the room. "I don't believe it. How? How the hell? And WHY? Why did he come after me?" he thought to himself. "Why the hell would he follow me all the way from Tokyo and leave Nobuta?"

He was torn from his reverie when he glanced down at his desk and spotted a small crumpled piece of paper. Shuji glanced over to Akira, who was failing miserably at feigning innocence - he was whistling a tune to some unintelligible song, staring at the ceiling and nonchalantly twiddling his thumbs. Shuji un-crumpled the paper and read it.

_SHUUJI KUN! DID YOU MISS ME?__ . -AKIRA_

Against his better judgment, Shuji couldn't help but smile at his friend's little note. Yes, he thought, he had missed the tall spazzoid, even if it was only a day they had been separated. He quickly scribbled on the paper and threw it back to its sender.

_What the hell are you doing here? Does anyone know you're here?_

_P.S. Stick to contacts. You look like a computer geek._ _–Shuji_

Akira pouted when he read the last comment. He grabbed his pen and continued the note. With a satisfied look, he chucked the ball at his friend.

_YOU DIDN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION. YOU ANSWER FIRST .__ AND I DON'T LOOK LIKE A GEEK. GLASSES ARE SEXY. THE GIRLS ALL THINK SO. -AKIRA_

Shuji read the reply, surprised that he didn't get an answer. He passed back his reply.

_Fine, be that way. Maybe I missed you. So what if I did? Not that I did.__ Now, answer __**my**__ questions, baka! The girls obviously have no taste. – Shuji_

This time, the note made Akira smile ear to ear. Shuji **had **missed him after all. He felt a spark of as he placed the note in Shuji's hand once again.

_AKIRA HAPPY! w QUESTIONS? OH, YES! UM, I'LL TELL YOU LATER. PAPER'S NOT GOOD FOR HEART-TO-HEART CONVERSATIONS! __WE SHOULD EAT LUNCH TOGETHER ON THE ROOF AGAIN TODAY, LIKE BEFORE! NE, SHUJI! THEY HAVE MAMECHICHI IN HOKKAIDO! MAMECHICHI SHUUJI KUN! WONDERFUL MA-ME-CHI-CHI! _

_-__ AKIRA_

Shuji frowned slightly at the odd reply, but it quickly turned into a smile. Akira and his soymilk. Something he was very familiar with. Something that would probably never change, no matter how much of the stuff the taller boy drank. He still persisted in calling the drink by the wrong name too, by the sound of it.

Shuji was about to give his friend a sarcastic reply, when the teacher called Akira's name. He had just come back from photocopying their homework. They both turned guiltily to face the man, thinking they had just been caught passing each other notes on the first day of school, to find that he hadn't even noticed. He was only calling Akira, because apparently, he had a phone call waiting for him downstairs in the school office.

Akira glanced at Shuji, who shrugged. "You should probably get that," he said, slightly annoyed that his fun had been interrupted by a phone call. Akira was equally ticked off, but nodded and left the room flapping his arms like a large bird. "Remember lunch Shuuuji-kuuun! I'll come get you here later" yelled the boy as he ran through the corridor.

As Shuji watched Akira leave and wondered who could possibly be calling when he had only just gotten here, completely unaware that three pairs of eyes were in turn watching him like a hawk. The three girls were very, very curious as to what they had seen occurring in the last 20 minutes.

It had definitely not escaped their attention when the two boys that they had assumed to have nothing in common except being from looking hot, and arriving one day apart. It was almost as if the two knew each other, in fact, they looked _very_ close as they exchanged note after note after note. They also noticed that the one called Akira seemed to giggle every time he read the replies from the other one, Shuji, and the way he had called him "Shuji-kun" with so much familiarity. If you didn't know any better, they thought, one might think they were friends, or maybe even…

But luckily for Akira, the trio dismissed any further idea of the two being more than friends with what could only be described as extremely wishful thinking.

At least, for a while…

Akira continued to flap his arms until he reached the office and a bored looking secretary handed him the phone. Akira blanched as soon as he heard the dangerously angry voice of his father on the other end.

"**WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HOKKAIDO?!!! WITH MY HELICOPTER?! AND WHY ARE YOU IN A NEW SCHOOL?!!! WHY WASN'T I TOLD ABOUT THIS SOONER?!!! WHY WASN'T I TOLD AT ALL?!!!**** MY SECRETARY TOLD ME YOU LEFT TO LIVE WITH SOMEONE!!! WHO IS IT?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE MOVING IN WITH SOMEONE?! YOU'RE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL!!! I HAD TO GET ONE OF MY PEOPLE TO GET ON A TRAIN TO HOKKAIDO TO PICK YOU AND THE HELICOPTER UP TODAY!!! IT'S NOT A GODAMN CAR YOU CAN TAKE OUT FOR A SPIN!!!**

**I PHONED THE TOFU MAN AND HE SAYS YOU DON'T WANT TO COME BACK!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!!!"**

Akira cringed and held the phone away from his ear as his father continued his angry ranting through the phone. He knew the man would eventually call him to "chat" about what he had done, he just hoped it wouldn't be so took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst.

"Otousan, I came here to be with the person I love. You can tell your employee to pick the heli-heli up, but I'm staying here!"

There was silence on the other side of the line for a few seconds. "You're…in love?"

The man, clearly bewildered by the thought that that was the reason his son had hijacked his helicopter and flew it to Hokkaido. For love.

His father might have been a cold calculating businessman, but that didn't mean the man didn't have emotions or didn't know love. Love was a different matter altogether. The man knew how hard things could be when things like love and pride were involved. He had experienced it first hand many years ago when his father had told him to take over the company, and he had been torn between his freedom and pride, and doing what was best for his little family out of love. He had chosen the latter, and though he missed freedom, he never regretted that he had tried to do the best for his wife and son.

When Akira spoke again, there was no doubt whatsoever in his voice. He had known this for three long years. He wondered how it had happened, but had also quickly decided it did not matter. He had contemplated it over and over and over, and the answer was always the same.

"Yes, I'm in love! Honto ai! CHISU, CHISU, FALL IN LOVE!" he chirped, doing a little twirl and posing with his fingers in the shape of a heart, even though he father could not see what, and the twirl had gotten his slightly tangled in the telephone cord.

Akira's father softened; his son was in love. He was used to Akira acting without caring about the consequences, but this time, the boy had a valid excuse. He knew love made people do crazy things, and this was by far the craziest.

"Alright, I'll tell Matsuda to just take the helicopter. Just…be careful alright? Don't let yourself get hurt. I just hope you know for sure if whoever she is is the one for you." And he meant it too, every word. His son might not seen smart to most people, but he knew Akira was not stupid in any sense of the word. If he had his heart on someone, and had gone to the trouble of going to live with them, then Akira clearly knew what he wanted, and was going to do everything for that love.

He couldn't see Akira biting his lip. His father had said "she"; he still didn't know that when Akira said "the person I love," he really meant, "the guy I'm hopelessly, _incurably_ in love with." He nervously started to play with the wire. He felt guilty that he hadn't told his father yes; the man kinda deserved to know about it. For the second time during the conversation, he took a deep

"H-hai…um, about the person…that's-"but his father interrupted him before he could say anything further. "Gomen, Akira. We're going to have to cut this short. I have a business meeting to get to. We can discuss this another, time. Good luck, son. Win her heart, if you haven't already!"

And with that, the man hung up.

Somewhere nearby a school bell rang, but Akira paid it no attention. He walked back to through the corridor in a rare moment of silence, not even waving his arms, or skipping, or any of the usual things that he did to make a simple thing like walking somewhere a little less boring. He replayed the conversation in his head over and over, surprised that it had gone so well. That is, better than it might have gone. He wished his father hadn't stopped him from finally explaining that he was in love with a boy, and that that probably meant he was gay.

Not that Akira saw it that way, exactly. The way he saw it, he had a thing for Shuji, who just happened to be a guy. Akira didn't care. Why should he, Akira, who didn't mind if the whole world thought he was weird, let a little thing like gender keep him from being truly happy?

Suddenly, Akira heard lots of yelling and cheering coming from nearby. He vaguely remembered having heard the lunch bell a couple minutes. Curious, he followed the sounds until he found that they were coming from the gym. Inside, there was a group of about thirty people standing in a circle watching two boys fighting each other. Both of them looked like they had each taken a couple blows already. He realized with a gasp that he recognized them; they were the Watari twins that he had just met that morning, Umi and Yamazaki. He looked around to see if Shuji was here, before remembering that he had said he would pick him up at class for lunch.

He slapped his forehead at his own forgetfulness, and took of at full speed towards the classroom, hitting his foot on something hard in the process. He winced in pain and muttered, "Itai," before running again to get to Shuji as quick as possible. They would have lunch together, and he couldn't let Shuji wait any longer. He ran into the classroom and was relieved to see Shuji was still there. He realized that people might want to go watch the fight, so he yelled "Umi and Yamazaki are fighting, in the gym, go see!!" He grabbed Shuji by the arm and proceeded drag him out of the class room.

"Who are Umi and Yamazaki?" said Shuji. He was slightly confused as to why Akira was dragging him in the direction of what appeared to be the stairs to the roof, if the fight was in the gym.

Akira opened a heavy steel door and they were both hit by a wave of crisp ocean air.

'It might be a little cold,' Akira mused, 'but at least we'll be left alone here. Its nice and private.'

Shuji shivered slightly, obviously unused to Hokkaido's icy winter winds. He rubbed his hands together, visibly annoyed at being forcefully removed from the warmth of the school.

"Why did you bring us out here, baka?! It was so nice inside!"

Akira chuckled at that. Shuji was really cute when he got annoyed. "So that we can eat lunch on the roof, like we started doing before you left!"

Shuji gaped. "You pulled me out here so we could eat?! It's freezing!! Why can't we just eat inside, where we won't catch frostbite?!"

The taller boy shrugged. He had to admit, it made sense. He was a little disappointed that they couldn't eat up here; the view was gorgeous, and as soon as the weather got warmer, they would definitely have to come up here again. But for now, they could head inside.

"Okay, we can go inside. I'm getting a little cold too, ne," he said, rubbing his own hands together.

Shuji noticed that Akira's normally very tan cheeks were starting to look a little pale, but his lips seemed to retain their normal rosy colour, and he found himself staring at his friend, marveling at the beautiful contra- wait, since when did he stare at his friend for any reason other than profound bewilderment and confusion? He tried to assure himself that the cold was going to his brain, but he wasn't really convinced of it himself, and it left him feeling very uneasy, to say the least.

Eventually when they went back inside, they found a nice warm little music room with a view of the beach and sat eating their lunches and talked about Nobuta, and how much progress she had made since they had first started producing her. She seemed to have gotten quite popular with her lunch show, and despite what Aoi had done to her, she was getting along well with Mariko.

Later, as they were biking home together, Akira explained that it was her that had suggested that he go to Hokkaido to be with Shuji, although he left out a couple of the more currently inconvenient details of what she had told him.

"Ne…Shuuji kun? Want to go to the beach? I know its cold, but you always say how you want to go, so, why don't we go now?" Akira asked, his deep brown eyes going for the most convincing puppy-dog look he could manage, and his lips forming an irresistibly cute pout.

For the second time that day, Shuji had to fight the urge to start using long, and poetic, and-he cringed at the thought-_romantic_ words when he looked at Akira, almost making him crash into the white fence that separated the road from the beach. He shook the thought from his head, sighed softly, and smiled. "Alright, we'll go. The sea does look really nice today, even if we can't swim or anything.

They locked their bikes to the side of the fence and climb over it, Akira leaping and running towards the water with his arms outstretched as if he wanted to embrace all of it. Shuji walked slowly behind his friend with his hands in his pockets, smiling the smile of one that had found something they thought they had lost forever. He thought about how, just yesterday, he was wondering whether he'd ever see Nobuta or Akira again. His stomach clenched again as he wondered just how he would have managed life without them. But what he found strangest of all, was that he found the idea of never seeing Akira hardest to bear.

Though he would be hard pressed to admit it to anyone other than maybe Nobuta, he adored the hell out of his friend. The way Akira ran down the stairs waving his arms like a maniac, the way he pouted when he was annoyed or wanted you to do what he wanted, the way he went "Kon kon!" in that unique Akira way…Hell, Shuji even liked the way the guy said his name as if it had eight syllables…which Shuji considered a valid reason any day for a trip to a psychologist.

'If I ever got one, I'd have a very rich psychologist before long, for the amount of therapy I need. I must be a real head case, to have this many problems…they'd have a field day with me,' he mused.

Shuji watched Akira running wildly for a couple more seconds, before his habit of tripping over whatever happened to be closest to his feet kicked in, and the spazzoid went down harder than an old Vegas casino on its last day.

Shuji jogged up to his friend, slightly concerned but not wanting to let it show too much, and stuck out a hand. "Daijobu?"

The mass of sprawled limbs in front of him gave a small "Kon!" and took the hand with one of his own. Akira dusted some of the sand off of his uniform and grinned. "Akira is fine! Hehehe, I found a big shell, it got stuck to my foot and made me fall!", he added with a pout.

Shuji felt something coming on and had to turn his head away to try and beat away the thoughts that were creeping into his head. 'Ignore the face, ignore the face, don't look at his lips, don't look at his lips,' his better judgment screamed, 'Don't look! Ignore the soft brown eyes… don't start reciting poetry in your head…No!!! Shuji, whatever you do, DON'T LOOK AT THE POUTY FACE, DON'T LOOK AT THE DAMN POUTY FACE! NOOOOOOO!!!'

It continued to scream in agony as the pouty face won, and Shuji found his eyes drifting towards Akira's face. Damn.

He squirmed slightly as the adorable expression on Akira's face seemed to hijack his brain, causing his heart to melt oddly, and his face to breakout into what felt like a very weird grin, and even worse for his sanity, a rosy blush.

Akira stared at Shuji. He was confused as to why his crush's face looked like it had been turned to jelly and melted, at the same time. Akira was also surprised to notice Shuji's face was slightly more red and glow-y than usual. With an afterthought, he decided it was a very good look for Shuji.

When Shuji finally regained control of his mind and body, and the colour in his face returned to normal he looked at the ocean. He was feeling very annoyed over the fact that he acting like an idiot, in front of one of the biggest bakas in existence. But those thoughts seemed insignificant as they watched the setting sun.

Shuji grinned as he remembered something from a movie he had seen with Akira a couple months ago, when Nobuta had gone to visit some family members in Kyoto. The taller boy had been ranting constantly about needing to see the movie, because it had Yakuzas _and _vampires in it. Akira kept calling Shuji on his cell phone to complain that Shuji was lazy, and watching the movie might inspire him to take up martial arts like the guys in the movie. After 36 calls, Shuji finally gave in and agreed to watch it, if it would get him to stop calling at 2:30 in the morning.

He had to hand it to Akira; the guy had picked a good movie, even if he had left the theatre with his eyes all puffy and red from crying, and annoyed that Akira (whose eyes were equally red) felt the need to point out that fact over and over again.

Heh. The way things were going today, he'd be lucky if he didn't break down and start singing about orange sunsets and running through the waves. Shuji had decided that he would sooner eat his hair scrunchie collection than admit that he also knew all the words to the movie's theme song, and was moved to tears every time he heard it. There was only so much his pride could take.

Akira frowned; Shuji was going into deep thinker mode again, and completely ignoring Akira. He had tried yelling a few times, but Shuji was really zoning out. So Akira selected a prime spot on Shuji's ribs, poked hard, and watched with satisfaction as Shuji leapt several centimeters into the air in surprise.

"BAKA! Why'd you do that?!"

"Shuji was tuning Akira out. Communication is good Shuuji kun! No good tuning me out!" he said wagging his finger as Shuji massaged the offended spot.

Shuji sighed. Akira was right, he shouldn't be tuning the boy out, how ever annoying he may be. "What did you want to say?"

Akira smiled. He rested his head on Shuji's shoulder, got pushed off, only to rest it there again, knowing Shuji wouldn't bother to brush him off again. He made little kissy faces in the vague hope that Shuji might take the hint and kiss him, which he didn't. Half disappointed, Akira answered his friend's question. "I said, I wonder what Nobuta is doing right now."

Shuji was silent for a few minutes, then said "I don't know. I hope she'll be okay. I just can't believe she sent you after me…but she really is a very surprising person. Even more than you."

"Mariko likes her a lot, I think they'll be good friends," said Akira.

Shuji felt a twinge of guilt. He still felt bad about what he had done to her in the sake of keeping up his status quo. But he couldn't keep lying to her, and he didn't want to lie to himself just so she could be happy. It was better this way.

A rare comfortable silence descended on the two boys as they stared out at the water, crashing against the rocks nearby, but still remaining calm. Both enjoyed that moment; they were not alone, they were together. Both of them felt a sense of peace that came from knowing they _would_ continue to see each other everyday. Shuji felt admittedly very happy that Akira had come all this way so he wouldn't be lonely, and grateful to Nobuta for encouraging the boy to chase him down. He also had the sneaking suspicion that Akira hadn't just followed him for Nobuta, or because Shuji was fun to play with and had the cash to do it, but because he genuinely liked Shuji, and cared about him.

Shuji watched as a group of seagulls flew over head, and suddenly something occurred to him. Those seagulls were used to flying in groups; they went everywhere together. They could survive alone and separated from each other, but it wasn't the same as being together as one. Kinda like Shuji to Akira, he mused. Together they could be happier, alone they would fall apart.

Shuji would've gotten popular, without lying this time, but he wouldn't have had any real friends, because wearing the Fake Shuji had become second nature to him, and only Akira and eventually Nobuta could see through it. He would've felt lonely while surrounded by people that adored him.

Akira would have been fine, for about two minutes, until he realized that Shuji was actually gone, and he had only Nobuta to hang out with (the rest of the world still believed Akira belonged in a mental asylum). He and Shuji had gotten so close, even if Shuji was still reluctant to admit it, and had become friends for life. Hanging out together had become a fact of life and a necessity for them. Meeting everyday to find new fun ways to promote their Nobuta. As long as they were together, nothing in the world could stop them. Seishun Amigo.

"We…we can live anywhere we are…" Shuji thought out loud. Akira turned and looked at him with a confused look. "What? he asked. What did you say?" Akira tried to poking him with the fox puppet and kon konning it out of the boy when he didn't get answer, but Shuji just smiled at his friend knowingly, and started to walk away.

Not wanting to let Shuji get away from him that easily, Akira started to chase after him. Shuji knew that Akira would run after him. However, he was not prepared what happened next.

Akira soon caught up, and without thinking jumped onto Shuji's back. He was very happy about the fact that for once he wasn't pushed away out of annoyance.

Shuji reached behind him to readjust Akira's weight. Without thinking, Shuji found his hand mysteriously going lower and, as if it had a mind of its own, grab something that felt small and squishy and soft, and suspiciously like Akira's ass.

'Oh shit,' he thought, expression not changing, just in case Akira had blacked out for five seconds, and hadn't felt Shuji's hand reach back to grab his ass, and linger for a few a moment, before Shuji's brain had kicked in and moved the hand.

Unfortunately for Shuji, Akira had felt the hand. It had been a very pleasant surprise, even if Shuji seemed to be unaware that he just groped his best friends derriere. Akira giggled as his friend swung him around, dropped him, and ran into the frosty waters of the sea.

Akira ran after Shuji blindly, getting his whole uniform, and not to mention, his whole body wet in the process. He didn't care; Shuji was finally letting down his hair, figuratively AND literally if you took into account his love of hair scrunchies. Shuji was having fun with Akira like he did on rare occasions when he was sure no one was watching them; completely surrendering to True Shuji. Akira was having the time of his life, and so was Shuji.

Shuji laughed as he sent a wave of seawater towards his friend, getting even wetter when Akira gave out a high pitched war cry and retaliated with a wave of his own. They continued their game of splashy-splashy until they realized that they were starting in ice cold ocean water and had no extra clothing. But even then, they never stopped laughing, exiting the sea holding onto each others hands.

Usually, they would both be extremely hesitant to hold hands, but there was nothing particularly usual about that day. They were both experiencing a happy high that could make affectionate gestures seem okay, and normal. Even Shuji, who normally shied away from Akira's constant touching and personal space invasions, felt reluctant to let go.

They both made their was back onto the beach, collapsing into a pile of drenched teenager; panting for air and smiling like the world didn't matter at that moment.

Akira sighed happily after a few minutes and shifted slightly so that he wasn't directly on top of Shuji anymore, who felt vaguely disappointed at the loss of head it caused. The taller boy shook his head like dog beamed at Shuji. This had to be one of the best days of his life. He had gotten a rare look at the thing he treasured most. The real Shuji; the one he was in love with.

In that moment, he decided to tell Shuji. It might just have been the rush, he thought, but he didn't care. He felt like he could say anything and do anything, that it would all come out okay. Right there and then, he felt that confessing would be a good idea.

So he stood up, did Nobuta's power summoning "Chuu Nyuu" move, and prepared to tell his friend the truth.

"Ne, Shuuji kun…I have something to tell you…"

**O**

**O**

**O**

**To Be Continued!**

_Yeah, I know__, I suck for pulling out the "to be continued" sign on you. But this is a multi-chapter fic, and 15 pages is quite a lot for one of my fic chapters. I promise that the next chapter won't move so slowly, I will try for less fluff if it's too overbearing, and more original plotline. I just had to include a lot of that stuff in this chapter because it will be important later. And cookies for anyone who can name the two things (or people, if you will) that I shamelessly plugged and/or referenced in the story. Please give me comments; I use them to feed my plot bunnies! _


	2. Running From the Fans

**A Mystery to the Both of Them**

**Title**: A Mystery to the Both of Them

**Chapter**: Running from the Fans

**Series**Nobuta wo Produce

**Pairing:** Shuji to Akira

**Genre:** Romance, Comedy, and if you squint really hard until everything goes all blurry and you're almost blind, a little bit of angst. Maybe -.-;

**Rating**: PG-13 for now, maybe going up to NC-17 in later chapter. Again, maybe. If you like it enough, I'll attempt a lemon.

**Warning: **Shuji's pervy libido. Kebai girls with Gay-dars.LOTS OF FLUFF. It might also be a little OOC, since I am trying to make Akira himself (i.e., hopelessly spazzy and cute) without losing the hidden depth he has. Also, I tried my best with Shuji; they are both extremely dynamic characters and very difficult to write well. You tell me if I did okay, please. Creation of words like "vortex-y" Possible future smut. Please, please, please comment!

**Dedicated to:** Two of my favourite people in this world; Meru, for saving me from the hell that is solitude; and Marjorie, who spoke to me when others pretended I was air. Thank you for being among my precious people.

**A/N: **On the fic, yes…this one…um…just read it. Its better if I don't ruin anything by explaining it. I'll shut up now. -.-; Wait! Um, just so you know ahead of time, I have NOTHING against fangirls. Hell, I am a fangirl! I exaggerated them in this for comic effect, so please don't kill me. Oh, and I also want to mention how happy I am that I finally bought Nobuta wo Produce on DVD at an Asian drama store. Go me! w

**Running from the Fans**

"_Ne, Shuuji kun…I have something to tell you…"_

"Huh?" said Shuji puzzled at the suddenly nervous and very serious look on Akira's face. Whatever it was, it had to be extremely important, if it made the usually psychotically happy Akira look this worried. He stared at the other boy. "What is it? Something wrong?"

Akira bit his bottom lip nervously. It was now or never, he had to say it. Shuji needed the truth, and Akira needed to tell him, before he lost his nerve.

Shuji continued to stare at Akira. Only now, he found himself unable to look away, for the third time that day. The image of Akira biting his lips till they were swollen, and looking at Shuji with chocolaty brown eyes full of doubt and worry was definitely not helping.

'What the hell he wrong with me?! Why can't I stop staring at him?! This is so stupid, he's Akira for god's sake! AKIRA! There's no reason I should be staring, so why the hell can't I stop, damn it?!' he thought angrily. 'And why the hell isn't he talking yet? Stop biting your lips, it's distracting me!!!'

But the last mental request did not reach Akira, who bit even harder, rolling the soft flesh of his lip between his teeth and also started fiddling with his wet uniform jacket. At that rate, Shuji wouldn't be able to hear what Akira was saying at all, through the visual loudness of Akira's lip chewing.

Akira was having trouble saying anything. This was harder than he thought it would be; trying to think of a way to tell Shuji, without causing the latter to run screaming in panic in the opposite direction. Who knew confessing your love to someone you saw and spoke comfortably to every day could be so hard? But then, most people confessed to people that weren't their best friend. Or the of same gender, for that matter. The gender thing could prove to be problematic in many cases. Needless to say, Akira was worried as hell.

Shuji frowned. Akira still hadn't answered. He seemed to be thinking about something. Shuji was about to shake the boy till he told him, when Akira seemed to snap out of it, and stopped abusing his almost bruised lip. "Ah, Shuji, gomen ne. Betsuni, betsuni…I just need to tell you something. It's…sort of important. Ano, Shuuji-kun…how do you-"he was suddenly cut off by the sound of a ringtone that resembled a song by some or other popular rockstar. Akira vaguely remembered that his name started with a "G" and was one of those people who insisted on it being written in English. The man seemed to like saying words like 'motto', 'hayaku' and - Akira blushed - 'ikura!' The ringtone was coming from the duo's bags, which they had wisely removed before proceeding to fool around on the beach.

Akira stopped worrying for a moment and looked at Shuji, who was obviously extremely embarrassed that his best friend had just discovered his secret love of Gackt songs. Shuji grabbed for his phone, dropping it twice, before he finally opened it and pressed the green button.

"M-moshi moshi? Ah, Dad! What is it? …Mom is home?" he said, surprised. His mother was rarely ever home, so he usually only found out later when he spotted her passed out on the couch from jet-lag. And besides, he had seem her only yesterday, so it was odd that she was home again already, especially since they hadn't finished packing yet. "Oh, her flight was cancelled? Okay. Well, what does she want for dinner?" he asked. He twirled his long brown hair slightly as his dad explained that he had distinctly heard the woman say "Udon" several times in her sleep. Akira giggled at the sight; Shuji looked like a schoolgirl receiving the latest gossip from one of her chatty friends. He was twirling his hair in a very

Shuji noticed that Akira seemed to find something about his phone conversation amusing, and sent the other boy a death glare, which slid off Akira like water off a duck. "You want me to pick up some udon on my way home?" he continued. "Um, if I can find a store, I could. Uhuh, ja ne!" Shuji pressed the red button of his phone and threw the thing back into his bag with a disappointed sigh. He had wanted to stay here a little longer with Akira, even if he was getting really cold from the wet clothing that was starting to cling to his slim frame. He realized suddenly that Akira still wanted to talk to him about something.

"What were you going to tell me before the phone rang?" he asked, trying not to look Akira directly in the eyes, just in case the baka started going all puppy dog-eyed and bit his lip again. Shuji's brain was not capable of handling any more of that today. He felt that the day was weird enough _without_ his best friend making him go all mushy with that unreasonably cute face of his.

"Oh, that! Yes! Uh…well, it's like…I…" he tried. "Ano…I think I should tell you some other time. Now is not the best time." he finished, finally accepting the fact that the moment of bravery had flown out the window the second Shuji's phone rang. 'What am I thinking?!' he thought to himself. 'I can't tell Shuji-kun now, he just got here, and…and…and…I just can't tell him now!' His hand kon konned at him harshly for acting so carelessly. Shuji watched as Akira appeared to argue briefly with his hand. If he were anyone else, Shuji might have found it odd or maybe even a little creepy, but this had slowly become his idea of "normal". Well, for Akira, that is.

"Okay…well, whatever," said Shuji with a shrug. "Uh, I have to go to the store and make dinner. You wouldn't happen to know where the best place to get groceries around here is, would you?" asked Shuji. Akira looked away from his hand puppet to grin widely at Shuji. He had gone shopping yesterday. "That depends, can Akira stay for dinner daccha?" he said with a soft poke at Shuji's cheek.

The long-haired boy swatted at the offending hand and groaned. He wanted to go home and think about everything that had happened today. Heaven knows he needed to figure it all out. Especially why the hell Akira had suddenly turned into a magnet for his eyes. But fair was fair; He didn't know the area, and Akira was living alone now, so he was probably going to need something other than bachelor food and soy milk. And as much as he hated to admit it (even if only to himself), he liked having Akira over. His only real concern was that Koji might start to imitate the idiot.

"Okay, fine. But just 'cause I don't know where to buy food. Don't expect to eat with us every night okay?" said Shuji. Akira nodded ecstatically. "Hai! Wakata, Shuuji kun! Shoppiiiing! We're going shopping Shuji-kun!!! SHOOPPPPING!" he yelled, running across the beach towards their bikes. "Oh, we can buy lots of MAMECHICHI AND CANDY SHUUJI-KUN!" Shuji just shook his head and followed the bouncing teen to their bikes, wondering for the thousandth time how they had ended up as best friends.

They had gone shopping, and somehow Akira had convinced him to get a large bag of mixed sour candies. ("LOOK! Shuuji-kun! They have worms that come in blue and red and GREEN! Instead of pink! Rainbow wormiiiiiiieeeees! And Dracula teeth that you can chew on! How weird!" o) Akira was still the only person Shuji knew who could use emoticons in regular speech. In the end though, Akira had insisted on paying for it himself, even though Shuji technically owed him well over three million yen in Nobuta related favors. Shuji thanked whatever deity watched over him that Akira didn't care about money, and didn't expect Shuji to pay him back. At least, he hoped not.

After the shopping trip, they had gone to Shuji's house for dinner. The house was a lot bigger than their apartment in Tokyo had been, and had two floors with more rooms than they were used to. They had after all, been living in Tokyo.

Shuji had done most of the cooking himself, and Akira seemed to love the food, occasionally making comments like, "OISHI! Shuji-kun has Iron Chef cooking skills! Iron Chef Shuuji-kun! The noodles are swimming in my belly!!!". He also seemed to be getting along very well with Koji, who kept asking him questions about martial arts with eyes as large as saucers. Akira was only too happy to answer (with actual physical demonstrations of how exactly you would go about breaking someone's wrist with only your index and middle fingers). His mother seemed to like the boy too. Shuji was surprised; he hardly knew his mother that well himself, except that she liked to sleep a lot when she was home, and she had been to more countries than Shuji had heard of, occasionally bringing them back souvenirs. So it was nice to know she got a long well with his friend, especially since not many people were so quick to warm up to the boy. Shuji mused, Akira might have been a loner, if not for the fact that he suffered from almost permanent and contagious cheerfulness.

Eventually, Akira went home at about 2:00 in the morning, but only after Shuji reminded him that they another day of school in the morning before it was the weekend. Akira had yawned loudly, stretched in uncomfortable-looking ways, said his goodbyes, and headed back to his apartment, much to the dismay of Shuji's parents. Koji would have been just as unhappy, were it not for the fact that he had nodded off 4 hours earlier and had to be carried to bed by Shuji. They were all really starting to get attached to the boy who was practically Shuji's shadow. Of course they _had_ wondered, like Shuji had, why the boy had gone to the trouble of moving to Hokkaido, to the same school, and buying a pricey beach apartment, just so that their son wouldn't be lonely. But after an hour with Akira, they had simply written it off as one of the boy's odd quirks, as part of his apparently unrestrainable loyalty to his friends.

Shuji sat on the windowsill of his new room, marveling at how different everything here. Not only did he have a mediocre view of the sea (which was about half a kilometer away), but he now had a room to himself, rather than sharing with Koji. His brother was only too happy that he had more space to dump his stuff, and that he didn't have to share the same clothing cupboard, which Shuji had always monopolized.

But this new house did have one downside. He couldn't sit on the roof and overlook the city as he went through his usual nightly teeth brushing routine. Shuji adjusted his hair scrunchie and sighed. He was giving up so much. He was leaving behind almost everything that he had grown accustomed to over the years. He had been yanked out of Tokyo, much like his willow had several months ago. Shuji wondered what had happened to his willow, and whether he'd ever get see it again. Who knew, maybe he would. He had wondered only hours ago if he would ever see Akira again, and that had happened, so maybe he could find it some day. If he did, he decided, he and Akira and Nobuta would go see it together.

When he finally got into bed at 2:30, he had many strange dreams as soon as he was asleep. But the one he remembered most vividly, the one that could not shake nor explain, involved Akira. Usually, this wouldn't be a problem. In his dreams, Akira was just as clingy as in real life, but at least he knew Dream Akira would go away if he woke up.

But in this dream, he was…clinging back…

In the dream, Shuji and Akira were on a couch in a large room. There was a cozy fireplace in the middle of the wall in front of them, and they were covered by a big fluffy fleece blanket. There were empty bottles of Akira's favourite soy milk on the table nearby, and plates with remnants of what looked like steak with mushroom sauce. To Shuji's great surprise, it seemed they were holding each other's hands, and Akira was lying with his back against his chest. Even more surprising, was that for once, the boy seemed calm and peaceful. "Shuuji kun…I love you…almost as much as soy milk," he said with satisfied smile.

"Hey, aren't I more important than some beverage?" said a new voice. Shuji realized with a shock that it was his own, because a)they were the only two people in the room, b)it definitely sounded like his voice, and c)his mouth had been moving. Which was strange, because he hadn't tried to speak, and it didn't sound like the kind of thing he would say to Akira while sane, or at the very least, sober.

'Akira is my best friend. He is a guy, not a chick. I'm a guy, last time I checked. That's not my voice! I am straight! Straight! I think…wait, no! I am straight, I am straight! I like girls! Chicks! Breasts and all that! Yeah…that pouty face is NOT cute and seductive! Those eyes are NOT deep and mysterious and-no! I'm straight! …Just because I haven't ever found a girl even remotely hot bef-no! No! I'm straight, damn it!' Shuji thought frantically. 'And why the hell is Akira talking like that? He's straight too! He likes, scratch that, _adores_ girls. He was in love with Nobuta! This is such a weird dream…'

Akira turned to Shuji with a look of fake outrage. "You're making me choose between my mamechichi and Shuji-kun?! Akira SHOCK!"

To Shuji's horror, his mouth and vocal cords, not to mention his face, had betrayed him. They were all moving of their own accord, and Shuji was unable to stop it. "Maybe I should make it a little easier for you to decide…"he said, winking against his will. He tried to push Akira off and run the hell away, but found he still had no control over any of his actions. It was like he was watching someone who looked exactly like him, talked with his voice, and had all of his mannerisms, through their eyes.

To make matters even worse, the body he was currently in seemed to be leaned towards the dream Akira's face. Before he knew it, Akira leaned closer enthusiastically, and their lips locked for a passionate kiss. 'OHGODOHGODOHGOD!' Shuji chanted in his head. 'Why the fuck am I kissing him?! WHY IS HE KISSING ME BACK?!' His body pulled Akira closer as the kiss went deeper. He watched his hands gently clutching Akira's soft-looking brown hair, and the tongue he wished did not look so much like his licking the boy's plump red lips and occasionally diving into his mouth.

Akira pushed him backwards, not wanting to give up control that quickly, and his tongue battled Shuji's for dominance. But eventually he slowed down and let Dream Shuji take the lead again, who, it seemed to Shuji, was a little too eagerly pushing back against Akira and trailing his long fingers under the boys shirt over his well-toned back.

For Shuji, the worst part was that he couldn't tell if he (or really, his dream self) was enjoying this; he could not feel a thing. So he could not tell whether or not that bulge in his dream body's pants was just his imagination. From the looks of things, his dream body was _loving_ this. And if the noises Akira was making were any indication, he was too.

'Was that a moan?' Shuji wondered as his body continued to ravish his friend's mouth. Akira crooned deep within his throat. It sounded low and long and desperate for more. 'Oh god! This is not fair! I'm straight! I like girls! This isn't even really Akira. The real one would've tried to push me off and run off waving his arms like a bird and screaming something weird and incoherent! He wouldn't be sitting there kissing me and giving me that damn "Take me now" look!' he whined inside his head.

"Shuuji-kun…I love you! More than soy milk, daccha!" Akira giggled with a small kon at Shuji's cheek. "Now, are we gonna do it here, or are we moving to the bed, do you think?" he said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

One second later, Akira and the rest of the surroundings disappeared mercifully and the dream changed. Shuji was standing next to a chair, surrounded only by a black abyss. He sighed in relief and looked around himself into the empty darkness. He had been about to cry at the complete unfairness of that dream. He had just almost ended up sleeping with Akira. Even if it was a dream, it didn't mean he felt any better about it; he was straight, Akira was boy, and his friend, and definitely NOT a boyfriend. He sat down on the chair, exasperated and wishing that this dream would end so that he could wake up and forget about it. As he sat emo-ing over his misfortune, he spotted someone waving at him from a distance. They jogged close and Shuji gasped.

It seemed to be…another clone of himself. This time, the clone was wearing an outfit that could only be described as "skimpy", or possibly "slutty." It consisted of tight black leather pants and a torn up fishnet top, showcasing the clone's skinny but firm torso. Definitely not Shuji's usual wardrobe. His doppelganger waved at him again.

"Hi! You must be Shuji!" it said with a flirty wink. Shuji frowned. Once again, this person sounded like him too. Great, just great. This one was probably going to try to molest him. Just what he needed; being violated by someone who could have been his eviler, more scantily-dressed twin.

"One second!" he said when the clone tried to speak again. "Who the hell are you, why do you look like me? And just _what_ the hell are you wearing?! Is that black nail polish?! What was all that stuff just before about? I'm straight, why did I have to see that?!" The figure just grinned at him in a way Shuji could never pull off, all teeth and upraised eyebrows. It then proceeded to lick its lips in a highly suggestive way that made Shuji squirm and want to slap the clone.

"To answer your first question…I am your Libido!" it announced as if it was commenting on the weather. Shuji gasped a second time. What the hell?! Why couldn't he have normal weird dreams, he wondered "To answer you other questions, I am part of you, so I naturally look like you. I am wearing my normal clothing. Yes, that is black nail polish, isn't it gorgeous?. And as for that dream you just had, you have the hots for The Pouty-Lipped One. Oh, and you need to get laid. Badly," the libido finished.

Shuji blinked in shock. That was the last thing he was expecting to hear. That seemed to be happening a lot tonight. But really, in love with Akira? Not possible. He hoped… "Psh, 'Pouty-Lipped One?" You mean Akira? That guy? The one who flaps his arms, clings to me like a safety blanket, and goes 'Kon kon!' constantly? _That_ Akira? You think I'm attracted to _that_?" he said, trying to convince both of them.

No such luck.

His libido grinned even wider, which gave the casual observer the impression that it, or well _him,_ really, was an experienced predator that had just spotted something young and tender straying from its herd and getting hopelessly lost. It was very hard to be a casual observer around such a grin. It was making Shuji uncomfortable; he felt like the figure in front of him was hitting on him again, and he started to fidget with nonexistent loose threads on his clothes.

"Yup. Head over heels. Completely infatuated. Well, I have to go now, take care, ne!" Shuji's libido said with another wink, and disappeared suddenly in an puff of smoke, leaving Shuji alone in the darkness. But even the darkness did not remain long. It was soon swirling ominously and dissolving in a vortex-y kind of way.

He woke up with a start, covered in sweat. He sat up for several minutes, panting and wide-eyed. "HOLY SHIT! That was the weirdest damn dream I've ever had! Man, messed up! What the hell was in that udon?!" he muttered, running elegant fingers through his long hair in irritation. Oh well, it was just a dream. Hopefully it meant nothing. Hopefully…

His thought were disrupted suddenly by an annoying ticking sound at the window. Shuji got up to see what the hell was making so much noise at- he checked the time- 7 o'clock in the morning. He nearly died of shock when Akira's cheery face peered up and him with a little "Kon kon!"

Shuji dived down so Akira couldn't see him. "Fuck," he blushed heavily as he recalled the dream in which they had almost had sex. The mental images currently floating through his brain included moments from the dream in which Akira was moaning in pleasure. "Double Fuck." What would Akira think if he knew Shuji was having dirty thoughts about him, he wondered.

"Shuuji-kun! Found ya!" Akira sing-songed beneath his window, giggling softly. "No playing hide and seek! Shuji-kun needs to get ready for school!" he said waving his finger at his friend like a kindergarten teacher. Akira saw Shuji's head pop out of the window again and he giggled. His friend still wore his hair in a scrunchie, despite the fact that it made him look like a French poodle. He wondered briefly why Shuji looked so flushed and panicky.

"Baka! What are you doing here?! Its 7 o'clock! What time did you wake up, anyway?!" Shuji yelled. Of course, knowing Akira, he probably did this just to annoy him. Well, that's what Shuji thought anyway. As great of a friend Akira was, being irritated came with the package. Sometimes Shuji wondered if he had angered some or other vengeful god, who retaliated by sending Akira to make him turn grey before he hit 20. He stroked his hair protectively at the thought. "Shhh. It's alright. I won't let him hurt you," he whispered to his well-managed locks.

"I'm coming up Shuuji-kun!" Akira sang. Two minutes later he had somehow managed to scale the high wall and climb through the window, much to Shuji's displeasure. Akira then convinced Shuji to make him some breakfast before they rode to school together, just like they used to.

Shuji sighed as he poured himself some coffee and watched Akira wolf down eight pieces of bacon and two eggs in under three minutes. He had no idea how he had ended up cooking for the boy. But then again, Shuji was having trouble concentrating much on _anything_ Akira was saying, thanks to last night's dream. '"Shuuji-kun…. I love you! More than soy milk, daccha!"' his mind echoed sadistically. 'Triple Fuck. Stupid hormones…' He looked at Akira and shook his head. He tried to convince himself that it was just a dream, probably something to do with the salty air, or the tremendous shock of seeing Akira here, making Shuji only capable of thinking about him. Yeah, that was probably it, he thought.

Thoughts can be so confusing.

As they rode to school, the two boys were unaware of the surprise that awaited them at school. Three pairs of eyes peeked out from behind a bush, scanning the area for any sign of the two boys from Tokyo. The eyes belonged to the three girls that had been spying on Shuji and Akira's note-passing session the day before.

"Do you see anything? I can't, and I'm tired of sitting in this fucking bush!" whined Yuriko. She was growing impatient; the sooner they saw either of the two boys, the sooner they could pretend to coincidentally be walking past the bike-stands, and strike up a conversation with them. They planned to flirt like their lives depended on it.

"No! What's taking them so long?! Oi, Sadako, didn't you say you'd try to follow one of them yesterday? What happened, did you get any pictures?" said Ami, attempting to brush the many leaves out of her hair.

"I tried, but both of them of them took a different road and I lost them! I did find out a couple interesting things about them though…the funny thing is, when I snuck into the office get Kusano-sama and Kiritani-kun's addresses...well, Kusano-sama lives really close to school, but he was biking away from where his apartment is supposed to be. With Kiritani-kun," she added nervously.

Yuriko bit her lip. They definitely knew each other. This was not good; there was no way she could date both of them without getting caught if they were this close. That also made her nervous, the fact that she had no idea just how close the were to each other. "It doesn't make any sense at all! They only just got here yesterday, they couldn't be friends already, unless they somehow knew each other before they arrived!" she said, cursing loudly. "This sucks! How are we supposed to seduce them if they never fucking separate?!"

"Shh! I think I see someone coming!" said Ami. "It might be them!" Yuriko looked around with wide eyes. "Quick, hide before they see us!" she said, shoving Sadako against the wall behind them to make room to sit. "Itai…" said the girl, rubbing the spot where she hit the bricks. Sometimes, Sadako wondered why she hung out with Yuriko and Ami, other than the fact that it was better than being in their way.

To their utter disappoint, then horror, it turned out that it wasn't the two boys that they heard coming closer. It was something far worse: their new, quickly growing fanclub. Six girls and two boys carrying cameras and chatting loudly in a language consisting largely of words like "Squee", "OMG", "Kyah!" and "Sugoi!" they moved as a single entity with a purpose: If you see them, tackle them.

The trio cringed. Even Sadako, who had four restraining orders and counting against her, was no match for the horde of many fangirls (and boys) that lurked among the students at their school. They, she admitted, would stop at nothing, _nothing_, if they saw anyone who had any remotely bishounen-like qualities. If the fangirls were after Kusano and Kiritani, the trio's chances of getting to the boys first just got severely diminished.

Suddenly one of the fangirls yelled, "Look! They're both coming this way! KYAH!!!!! Kusano-sama, Kiritani-sama, WE LOVE YOU!!!!", and Sadako wisely crouched down out of harm's way.

Akira, who had been racing Shuji to school, gaped and felt cold fear run through his body. Yesterday, he had barely escaped from the rabid group of fans now only 100 meters ahead of him. He had an especially hard time getting away from the fanboys, who, it turned out, were on the school track team for the purpose of catching up with their victims faster. Akira had come uncomfortably close to being groped and molested by the psychotic pack of would-be groupies, and dreaded seeing them again. He couldn't even fight back, because although they all seemed a little too friendly, he refused to fight girls.

This time it was significantly worse, he felt. They seem to have taken notice of Shuji, and he would be damned if anyone but him laid hands on his Shuji-kun. He would tear the fanboys limb from limb it they tried anything, and the fangirls…well, he would work that out if the situation presented itself. If push came to shove, he would pick up Shuji and run his ass off.

"Ano, Shuji? You might want to keep biking, ne. These people…they chased Akira yesterday. They don't give up, daccha! Bike, Shuuji-kun! Bike for your life!!!!" he screamed.

Shuji looked Akira, puzzled as to what the guy was screaming about this time. Akira seemed to be trying to tell him something, and wasn't watching where he was going. Shuji stopped peddling and watched as Akira realized too late that he was going to crash into the bike stands. The long haired boy shut his eyes and grimaced as the sound of a loud crash rang through the school grounds and Akira yelled in terror. "SAVE YOURSELF SHUJI-KUN! FORGET ABOUT ME, I'M A GONER!" was the last thing Akira said, before the horde of fans descended on him like locusts on a vegetable crop.

"Kyah! OMG! His skin is soooo soft! Squeeeeeeee! That face is so adorable! OMG! Quick someone tear off his shirt so I can take a picture!" said one girl, hopping up and down energetically taking pictures like crazy. "DEAR GOD! He has an Uke Face!!! Uke Faaaace! Screw the shirt, TAKE OFF HIS PANTS!" said one of the fanboys, causing Akira to go from blushing like crazy to ghost white in two seconds. "Nooooooo!" He tried to wiggle free, but four of the fangirls had an iron grip on his arms and legs. He tried to yank each one of his limb out of their grasp, but evidently, the fanboys weren't the only ones working out.

Akira remembered vaguely seeing three of the girls wearing sports shirts yesterday with the words "Kicking Pandas Karate Team" emblazed in green letters, right before they chased him around the school eight times.

Shuji dropped his bike ran towards the mass of obsessive fans to try and dig out his friend. As funny as it was watching Akira's personal space get invaded for once, it wasn't amusing when he realized the fanclub was not joking about removing Akira's pants. He felt a strange feeling as he rushed to free Akira. It was somewhere between worry and panic and anger at what it sounded like they were going to do to Akira.

Shuji screamed and dove on top of Akira, effectively tearing him out of the girls' arms, and grabbed Akira's hand. It took the girls all of four seconds to figure out what had just happened, before they squealed even louder and made for Shuji. Luckily, those four seconds were just enough for the two boys to get up and start running like all of hell was chasing them.

"Akira! We need to find a hiding spot before they rip our clothes off!!!" he yelled, as they made for the school building.

Eventually, after running through three levels and knocking several people over in the process, they found themselves taking refuge in the music room they had eaten lunch in the day before. Akira locked the door and helped Shuji barricade it with a table, before collapsing on the floor with their heads resting against each other and their backs against the wall.

"Who the hell were those people? Why were they chasing us?" Shuji asked panting and trying to catch his breath. "And why" he added, "were they trying to…uh…strip you?" Shuji felt a blush form on his face. 'Crap, the dream!' He cursed himself for asking that last question.

"F-f-fanclub. They c-chased me y-yesterday cause I landed in a h-helicopter and they wanted to meet me. I d-don't know w-why exactly they w-wanted to take my c-clothes off though…" Akira finished, equally out of breath.

It struck him then that Shuji had just saved him, and a look of pure admiration dawned on his face, eyes sparkling happily. "Shuji saved me, Shuji saved me! Shuji is Akira's hero! Without a white horse…but still, Shuji is Akira's hero!" he sang as hugged Shuji tightly. He clung to the boy and a grinned a 10,000 watt smile.

Shuji looked down at Akira's smiling face and couldn't help but reward the boy with a smile of his own. He laughed at the sight in front of him; if Akira were in a shoujo manga, there would be a background of purple sparkles or roses right now. His deep brown were literally sparkling and a cheesy grin was plastered on his lips. Akira stopped grasping Shuji's middle to see exactly why his friend was laughing and tilted his head slightly in curiosity. "Ne, Shuuji-kun! What's so funny, daccha?" he said.

"N-nothing! Hahaha…its just…your face is so absurd sometimes!" Shuji replied. At that answer, Akira blew up his cheeks indignantly and pouted. "Shuuji-kun! You're so mean! Your face is even more absurd, Bakayarou!" But Shuji just kept laughing at Akira with his cheeks puffed up like a blowfish and his arms flapping like an angry ostrich.

When they heard the bell ring, Akira deflated his cheeks and groaned loudly. "I don't want to leave, its nice in here! It's warm…" he said, grabbing Shuji's arm and holding on to it for dear life. "Shuji! Let's just stay here! Akira is scared of the fangirls…" But Shuji pulled his arm free, got up and said, "Come on, we should probably go, its only the second day of school, we shouldn't miss it. Hopefully, they'll have gone by now"

Akira sighed; there went his chance of a comfortable day wasted sitting in a warm room with Shuji next to him. 'Oh, well, it was good while it lasted,' he thought, and got up to help the other boy push the table out of the way.

Unbeknownst to them, outside the window Yuriko, Ami, and Sadako sat perched in a tree, listening to their every word. "They seem extremely close…we need to find out exactly how they know each other. I'm not wasting another fucking day covered in leaves for either of them, I don't care how fucking pretty they are, or how much money they have, I'm not doing this again!" said Yuriko gritting her teeth. "And why are they never apart?! I swear, Kusano-kun follows Kiritani-kun around like a god damned lost puppy!"

Ami nodded, this was getting pretty tiresome. She almost screamed when she saw a spider crawling on the branch she was sitting, but Sadako put a hand to her mouth to muffle the noise so they wouldn't be discovered. When Ami had calmed down sufficiently, she watched Akira grab hold of Shuji's waist and not letting go. She felt a surge of guilt; the guy should have been holding _her_ like that, like a precious object you couldn't get rid of in a million years. There was definitely something going on between those boys that was a little more than friendliness between two friends.

Sadako sat in the branch above Ami, wondering if she could sneak into their houses for information, so she suggested the idea to the other girls. "No, I have a better idea," said Yuriko. "As soon as they get up to eat lunch, we block the door and ask them ourselves. But try not to act suspicious. We'll find out once and for all if they're available. And if they are, may the best girl -me, of course- win. They're leaving, lets go."

They jumped out of the tree and headed to class, each one thinking of how great it would be with both those two boys as accessories, imagining the looks on the other girl's faces.

That day, time seemed to drag on mercilessly. Shuji and Akira sat in class, once again passing notes to each other about nothing in particular. When the bell rang, they got up to leave and were very surprised to see the door blocked by three Kebai girls with the most obviously fake smiles Akira had ever seen, even more so than Shuji's.

"Ah, Kiritani-kun! We were wondering something…"Ami stated. Shuji raised his eyebrows at the girls that looked like they were going to try to sell him a used car. He tried putting on his own fake smile to make them like him more, but gave up when he saw Akira shaking his head in disapproval. "Yes?" he asked, slightly uncomfortable. "What is it?

"Well, we were just curious…are you and Kusano-kun…um…friends or something?" said Sadako with a suggestive wink. Akira thought it looked rather like there was something wrong with her eyelid, and giggled.

Shuji stared at his friend with a quirked eyebrow. 'Is Akira enjoying this?' he wondered. The guy seemed to be extremely amused by the girl. Shuji couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Akira gave him a thumbs up and mouthed, "Tell the truth Shuji!" Shuji rolled his eyes and answered the question. "Yes, Akira is my friend. We went to school together in Tokyo."

Akira gasped and clutched his heart as if he had just been shot. "SHUJI-KUN! We're best friends! Aren't we Shuji-kun?! We are, right?! You _know_ we are, right?!" he said, panicking at the possibility that Shuji still didn't think they were after almost two years of constant pestering and nearly a whole year of hanging out together with Nobuta. The other boy's eyes grew to the size of saucers at the sight of Akira freaking out. He didn't mean to upset his friend, he had just forgotten to add the word 'best' before 'friend.'

He really regretted that right now, considering the fact that Akira's eye's had just started watering and he genuinely looked like he was going to cry if Shuji said no. He felt the strange and overpowering urge to hug the boy, but decided against it; the girls might jump to the wrong conclusions and start telling everyone that they were together. And that was really something that Shuji did not want after only two days in this school.

"Akira, yes, we are, we are! Best friends, right," he said hastily. "Yeah, sorry." Akira brightened up right away. "Yay! Shuji to Akira! Best friends forever! We can never be apart, daccha!" he yelled. He slung an arm around Shuji's shoulders lazily and nibbled at his nose with a happy "Kon kon!"

The trio of girls watched the boys curiously. They had heard the boys say they were best friends, but they couldn't help but feel there was something unspoken going on between Shuji and Akira that neither was going to bring up in front of other people. It made the girls very nervous to think that they were doomed from the start because there might already be something going on between the boys. Never mind them being friends; the girls would be lucky if they got to date even _one_ of them, if they were already together. Yuriko scowled; the thought of the boys dating made her want to puke.

Then an idea occurred to her; if they were together (and she was starting to think it was very likely they were) she could at least save her pride, break them up somehow, and snatch one of them for herself. After all, a little competition was always welcome, and she would be damned if she lost a hot guy, _to_ a hot guy…again. Now she just had to choose one. So she decided on Shuji, since from what she could see he was the most normal of the two boys. She turned to her friends and whispered something that made them glance over at their targets and giggle mischievously.

"Ah, yes. You and Kusano-kun look really…close. From the same school in Tokyo did you say? Best friends? Wow…and you ended up and the same school. What a wonderful coincidence, eh?" said Ami, voice filled with false sweetness.

"Uh, yes. Can we get through now? We'd like to go eat lunch," said Shuji. He was suddenly very annoyed at the girls and their nice act. He wondered if this was what Akira felt like whenever Shuji pretended to be Mr. Perfect in front of the class back in Tokyo. If it was, his game would have to end soon. Shuji wondered if he could handle living without a mask.

"Oh! Yes, of course, how silly of us, we'll let you get to your lunch. Bye-bye now!" they said, smiling knowingly. They stepped out of the way, and let the boys pass. Shuji and Akira walked, or in Akira's case, bounced, down the hallway to the classroom that was slowly becoming a sort of sanctuary for them, much like the roof in Tokyo was.

"Shuuji-kun! I'm confused! I don't understand girls, do you? AKIRA CONFUSED!" pouted the hyperactive teen. Shuji smiled empathetically. That was something they both agreed on. Women were a confusing species. They asked you to give an honest opinion, then got upset if they didn't like the answer. They spent way too much on things like shoes, and changed their hair more often than seemed healthy. Sometimes they were loud and flirted with him to annoying extents.

And of course, there was the fact that, just like Akira had claimed, it turned out their hearts were made of glass; when their hearts broke, they shattered into myriad of sharp, painful shards that lingered and wounded. Shuji remembered the day he told Mariko that he had never been in love with her, wasn't in love with her, and would never be. He winced, just what the hell could have possessed him to say that? Couldn't he have done it more gently? No, he couldn't have. Unlike Akira, who seemed to understand matters of the heart, he had no experience whatsoever, he knew nothing about love or what it made people do.

That was why Shuji disliked the idea of love initially.

It was uncharted territory.

It wasn't something that happened to him.

Love was something that happened to people like Akira, and his parents, and Chiyo-chan and Gunta. Hell, even Beetle-boy had been in love, although that hadn't gone so well. It seemed to Shuji that love was a double-edged sword. It could make you the happiest, most invincible person in the world, or it could reduce you to a gaunt shadow of the person you used to be, weak and unhappy.

And yet… somehow Shuji was starting to feel like…he wanted to know what it was like to loose control of all yours emotions. Just once, to not know what you were going to do next… Not knowing whether you would be caressed or cast aside once you got boring.

He hoped that he would know how it felt one day.

The idea that he was incapable of love…it scared the crap out of him.

As they went through the doors side by side, Shuji couldn't help but envy Akira, who knew what it was like to love someone. Life and love were so unfair sometimes.

Meanwhile, just up the hall, the nefarious trio of Kebai girls sat plotting out their new plan. "Okay, so there is a little bit of a problem. They're never alone. They always go down the hall to that room, and lock the door. I just checked to see if I could pry it open, but it's no use," Yuriko said, looking disturbed for a second, before continuing. "There's a chance they're…involved with one another, from the way they acted just now. And if they are, they might be trying to hide it. What I suggest, is that we split them up, either way. A way-too-close friend could spoil things," she finished.

Ami brightened up, but Sadako just got worried. "Well, since there is an extra, can I have whoever you don't get? I'm sure the leftover will be heartbroken, and I _do_ love broken boys. They're so needy, and fragile...And either way, I'll have something to brag about!" laughed Ami.

"Whatever. I'm taking Kiritani. You just keep Kusano out of the way." Their leader fiddled absentmindedly with her skirt. She made a mental note to lose some more weight so she could get a shorter one.

Sadako frowned, there were only two boys and she didn't get either of them. She didn't even get the spare boy. "What about me? Why can't I have Kusano?"

Ami and Yuriko looked at each other and grinned. Finally, they could break it to her. They were glad they would finally be rid of her now. "No, sorry! You should have called dibs if you wanted him. And besides, I don't think he's your type…Now that I think about it, you aren't our type either."

They waited patiently for the appropriate look of horror to appear on the girl's over decorated face. They savored it when it came. "How can you do this to me?! We're friends!!! Partners! You can't do this to me!" she cried desperately. As much as she had gotten used to their usually sadistic ways, she couldn't believe they would do this to her, after all she had done for them.

"Correction: we just did. Don't feel too bad, you could always join that fanclub or something. I'm sure you'd fit right in. Bye-bye now!" Ami teased, waving at her with an exaggerated unturned lip.

Sadako got up in silent fury, and ran down the hall. She was outraged. Yuriko and Ami had always treated her like dirt and used her an erin girl, but they had always grudgingly allowed her to hang around them. Now they had crossed the line.

She would do exactly as they said; she would join the fanclub. She had plenty of useful information that the fangirls would love to get their hands on. She would make both girls suffer for what they had done to her, she would make sure they did.

Sadako searched for several minutes until she found what she was looking for, sitting in tree and scanning the school grounds intently for signs of Shuji and Akira, who had closed the curtains in the music room to avoid being tracked down.

'It' was the fanclub's leader. "You there! Yes, you! I want to join the club! And I have some information you might want!" she yelled hotly.

The tall girl perched in the oak tree stared at her for a couple seconds, before grinning and jumping down. She shook a surprised Sadako's hand and chimed "Welcome to the fanclub! I like your spirit. Now, what is this information you have for us, hm?"

**O**

**O**

**O**

**To Be Continued…**

_Phew! It's done. And I wrote it in between a stressful exam week too. Well, I'm not totally happy with this one, but it is what it is. This is definitely going to be my longest fic ever. It already is, since my average fic is two to three pages long. This is already 29 pages. Wow. I surprised myself. w Several more chapters to come, hold on to your knickers! Again, I apologize for the exaggerated fangirls and boys, but I know for a fact that there are people like this out there. Scary fans. Yeah, I'm not trying to make fangirls look bad. I am very proud of the dream sequence. Although I think I overdid it a little in the Kebai POV in this one. Please, be gentle with comments; I don't write much, but this fic is one of my babies._


	3. Inconvenient Masterplans

**Title:** A Mystery to the Both of Them

**Chapter: **Inconvenient Masterplans

**Series:**Nobuta wo Produce

**Genre:** Comedy and Romance and almost invisible angst

**Rating: **Currently PG-13, but probably going way up in a couple chapters

**Dedicated to:** My new three-legged Chile Pig from a market in Seattle. w

**War****ning: **Boys in love…and in bed together in later chapters. Also, once again, please excuse the fangirls. I love fangirls, and I am one myself. No disrespect intended. And you might notice, I have a bad habit of plugging and referencing stuff I like, so beware of possible mentions of Moon Child, Eddie Izzard, Gackt, Hyde, S.K.I.N (I am still emo-ing over not getting to go to that concert), etc. that might leave you wondering what the hell I'm talking about. And yes, Akira is uke in this, because I like it that way, and he shouldn't have to do all the work, as he usually does in other people fics (don't hurt me, I love your fics! . I just prefer him as uke…)

**A/N: **About the fic, well…the plot thickens! ; I am so loving writing this thing, I really am! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated since June, but life has been intervening a lot lately. Oh, and I'd like to let you know, I have a couple ideas for more Nobuta stories, so that will be on the agenda as soon as I finish this fic. Also, I have fallen into a certain ritual when writing these stories, which consists of drinking both a cup of coffee and a drink called Elf Wine (original recipe: hot or cold milk, and either a teaspoon of vanilla essence plus 3 sugar cubes, or vanilla sugar.) Then I write till my fingers go numb, usually around 2:00 am.

**Inconvenient Masterplans **

The weekend after they "met" their new fanclub, Shuji and Akira decided they needed to get to know the city a little better. Especially so that they knew of any good places to hide, just in case the fangirls (and boys) tried to get "better acquainted" with them again. So they opted to go walking around the shopping centers and streets near school. They met at Shuji's house early on Saturday and spent the entire day window shopping, until Akira got bored and dragged Shuji into a small café for cake and soy milk. That was pretty much it for Saturday.

They wished later that Sunday could have gone by as uneventfully as Saturday had. Unfortunately for them, several members of their fanclub had decided that it would be fun to go looking for potential victims in the same clothing store as Shuji and Akira were shopping in. Needless to say, they caused quite a lot of commotion, and had only escaped when Akira dragged his friend into a nearby alleyway behind some trash cans. When they were sure the coast was clear, they ran to their bikes with their purchases and high-tailed it to Akira's apartment, which was nearest to the shops.

Apon walking into his friend's place, Shuji was astonished to find that the view of the ocean was better than the one he had from his bedroom window. The apartment didn't have much in the way of furniture, since Akira had just moved in and didn't really own couches or tables. But it did have a large (if a little bit moth-eaten) futon in Akira's bedroom, and a small lamp that he had borrowed from Shuji. In the tiny kitchen, there was an old fridge filled with soy milk and bachelor food, a tiny kettle for coffee and ramen, and a lot of empty cupboards. Shuji shook his head and wondered how Akira had expected to live here when all he had brought with him were his clothes and useless trinkets. He didn't even have a toaster or a microwave for gods sakes!

Shuji fidgeted nervously when he sat down on one of five pillows Akira had just thrown down as makeshift seats. The other boy hummed, grabbing the kettle and two ramen bowls for their lunch. Shuji frowned as he watched him pull out a bottle of flavoured soy milk from the fridge and sip it, as if he were savouring a particularly rare and vintage wine. He found it odd that Akira seemed completely at home with practically nothing. But then, it was Akira. Akira didn't just defy logic, he rebelled against it and beat it with stick. Hard.

What the hell was going through his mind while he was flying to Hokkaido? That everything he needed would just be there? Didn't the guy realize it took at least one large moving truck to relocate? The idiot had obviously not thought this through.

He cleared his throat, got up and grabbed a bouncing Akira by the arm. The boy looked at Shuji curiously, head tilted slightly to the side. "Akira, you have way too little furniture. You have hardly any food…and no, ramen and cold tofu does not count as food. Why the hell didn't you first go to a hotel or something _before_ getting an apartment in a town you've never even been to?"

Akira seemed to contemplate this for a second, before announcing cheerily "Because finding Shuji and making sure he had somewhere to hang out with Akira was important." This was all true, although Akira left out the part that involved them being together…alone. Luckily for Akira, it was not _completely_ unfurnished; he had his futon, which he had leant from the guy he was renting from, and a large, puffy and very blue sleeping bag he brought with him from Tokyo. He had had just enough common sense to bring it, and no more than that.

Shuji's jaw fell open. The baka hadn't been thinking at all again. Typical. He always thought about what he wanted to do before he thought about _how_ he should do it. And now, he felt his conscience yelling at him to help Akira out. Great, just great.

Shuji sighed and dragged his hand through his hair absentmindedly. He knew what was coming, so he decided to get it over with. "Ano…Akira…" he said. "Well, you should probably stay somewhere for a while and get it furnished or something…if you want to, you could probably stay with me…we have a guest room now, but-" he tried to finish, but was interrupted by Akira, who had just wrapped him in a bear hug. "Shuji, Shuji! I want to stay with Shuji-kun!" he sang, not letting go for a second.

"Well, it'll probably just be a couple days or so, so don't get your hopes up, okay?" said Shuji, trying to convince Akira (and, oddly enough, himself) that he wasn't as enthusiastic as he might have sounded. Akira smiled and let Shuji go. "Akira must pack! Akira is going to stay with Shuuji-kun!" he yelled as he ran through the apartment and grabbed everything he owned. As it started to rain again outside, Shuji sat on the floor, watching Akira and wondered why he felt so wonderful at that moment.

Many blocks away, at their new school, Sadako was picking the lock on the door of the schools administrations office. Since the school was not as high tech as most (and a little on the welfare end of the educational spectrum), all the files were stored in student files were stored in filing cabinets, as apposed to computers like the rest of the country. The lock clicked and she opened the door. Sadako directed the light of her flashlight around the room, and found the cabinet she was looking for in the corner of the room.

She opened the drawer, looking for two familiar names. She soon found the file of Kiritani Shuji. Sadako was somewhat disappointed to find he was not in fact a model. He was just a regular guy, but she took out her notepad and wrote down a couple things anyway, just in case. She put the file back and proceeded to look for the other boy's file

"Kusano Akira…Kusano Akira…Ku-yes! Got it!" she pulled out the file and scanned it. A lot of it was useless information, but as she went through it, she discovered a few things that might prove to be…useful. It seemed he was indeed loaded, and an heir to boot. His father owned a large company, and according to the teacher comments from his previous school, he was a bit of an outcast. She smiled madly as she wrote all of this down. Neither of the boys would suit her former friends, which meant that even if her plan failed, which it wouldn't, they would be in for a nasty surprise. They would pay, either way.

Sadako put back Akira's file in it's place and made sure to hide any evidence that she was there, before relocking the door and leaving the building. Tomorrow, she would have to have a nice long chat with her new friends from the fan club. At least now, she felt, she could hang out with people she had something in common with. Oh, what thrills they would have together…

And though she didn't know it at the time, luck was on her side that night, because she would soon witness something that would make the club members consider her their best friend.

That "something" was Shuji and Akira cycling together to Shuji's house. After he had called his dad to make sure that Akira could actually stay there, they left Akira's apartment and talked about Nobuta as they rode. They went slower deliberately so they could talk in peace without worrying about being interrupted.

"Akira…Do you think she's lonely without us?" Shuji asked, swerving slightly to avoid hitting a snail. Akira considered this for a second. "Yes, she probably is. How could she not miss Shuji to Akira?!" he answered, speaking their names as if they were the Japanese Siegfried and Roy or something. "She'll be lonely, but she'll overcome it. And she has Mariko-chan to talk to, Kon!" He pressed his fingers together and kissed them, "kon-kon"-ing happily at Shuji.

Shuji sighed. He still felt they should talk to her. "Ne, why don't we call her tonight once we get home? Just so we know she doesn't miss us too much?" he suggested. Akira chuckled and yelled, "Lets do it!" in English at the top of his lungs.

"Shh! With streets this empty, everyone will hear you, and I don't want to get arrested again!" he berated the boy. Akira grinned at his friend's worried expression. "Shuuji-kun! You need to learn to be naughty sometimes! Be naughty Shuji-kuuuun!" said Akira, racing ahead on his bike.

'Oh fuck,' thought Shuji. Certain thoughts clawed their way back into his brain despite his best efforts to think of something, _anything_ else. Why did Akira have to say that at a time like this anyway? Someone might hear him, and jump to the wrong conclusions. Why did _everything _Akira said sound so conspicuous?

Suddenly, Akira stopped and seemed to be trying to listen for something. Shuji stopped next to him. "Oi, why'd you stop? Is something wrong?" Akira frowned and motioned for Shuji to be quiet, confusing the boy, who had only just tried to get Akira to do the same. Akira frowned in annoyance. After a minute or so, he relaxed again and sighed.

"What is it?" Shuji asked, still confused. Akira started pedaling again. "Mmm…bet-su-ni! I thought I heard maniacal laughter, but it must have been a bird again…like the one Katharine caught! Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" he squawked, flapping his arms. Shuji rolled his eyes. The guy had a pretty vivid imagination, although he had to admit, the impression was dead on.

As the two boys rode past, Sadako emerged from her hiding place. She hadn't dared make a sound in case Akira discovered her. She was almost home when she heard Akira's voice. She hadn't really heard all that much, but she did hear Shuji mentioning them contacting someone when _they_ got home, Akira yelling something about being naughty over his shoulder at Shuji, and just barely caught sight of a blush on Shuji's cheeks, illuminated by a streetlight. From what she put together, she could tell she had hit the jackpot, and felt the need to laugh at her good fortune. Only when Akira stopped riding did she shut up and duck out of sight.

'Maybe Yuriko was right,' she thought. 'Maybe there is something going on between the two of them…Oh well, it doesn't matter to me, but I think my new friends at the fan club will find this very interesting…'

"Tadaima!" Shuji called. They had just gotten home, and Akira was already making himself comfortable. Shuji rolled his eyes; Akira would never change, especially not because of a little thing like moving across the country.

Akira flopped down on the couch, right next to Koji, who seemed unaware of his brother's arrangements with the boy. "Hey, Akira-kun! What are you doing here? Are you sleeping over here tonight?" he asked hopefully. Akira chuckled at how happy Shuji's brother looked. "Hai! For as long as I need to stay! Shuji told Akira to stay, so Akira is staying," said Akira, turning to wink at Shuji. Koji smiled a broad smile and said suddenly, "Can you teach me Karate, Akira-kun? Please? Pleasepleasepleaseplease?" Akira laughed at the boy, who was currently alternating between clinging to his leg, and groveling, and bowing so low his hair was touching the floor. He looked like he couldn't decide on what looked more persuasive, so was trying to combine all three.

Shuji groaned, and before Akira could answer his brother (now trying his best puppy dog expression), he motioned for his friend to follow him, which he did, flapping his "wings" as they went up the stairs to Shuji's room. "Niisan! No fair!" Koji yelled after them.

Akira looked around Shuji's room curiously. All the furniture was arranged around the room and free of the clutter. Much of his stuff was still in boxes, so the room looked extremely empty, but all the things Shuji considered to be of sentimental value had been taken out and covered his table. Akira noticed with some amusement that the Chile pig and Happiness doll were also two of Shuji's most treasured possessions.

"Oi, I don't need another Akira running around the house, thank you very much!" Shuji joked, throwing a pillow at Akira, who dodged it at the last second and stuck out his tongue at his friend. "Shuji BAKA! Only Akira can be Akira!" The hyper-active boy looked around the room again, tapping his lip with his forefinger. He seemed to make up his mind about something and smiled a contagious smile in Shuji's direction. "It's perfect! Akira will stay in Shuji-kun's room!" Akira bounced over to the redhead and pecked at his cheek with his fox puppet. Shuji looked at Akira imploringly and said, "But we have a spare room with a new spare bed you can sleep on and everything! Why do you want to sleep in my room anyway?"

Akira giggled at how defeated Shuji looked at that moment. "Cause you're supposed to sleep near the host at a sleepover, Shuuji-kun! And besides, new beds are hard! Akira can't sleep on new beds. Old beds are better, Kon!" he said, nodding wisely. Privately, he admitted it was also because he wanted to be near Shuji, even if the latter would be asleep and unresponsive to anything Akira said or did.

Finally, Shuji gave in. He had been looking forward to having Akira sleep in a different room this time, but he had been the one to invite Akira over in the first place, so he couldn't really be too disappointed about not getting his way. "Fine, but you're sleeping on a futon this time, okay?"

'He'll still be in the in the room, but at least I'll be able to turn over this time. Last time when he slept in my bed…it was awkward…'he thought. Akira nodded vigorously in agreement, happy that he didn't have to sleep by himself in another room. But Shuji didn't seem all that happy about it. This did not make Akira comfortable. 'What if Shuji doesn't really want me here? What if he was just being polite? Shuji always wants to make people feel comfortable around him, even it means lying to them…'

Akira bit his bottom lip nervously. Truthfully, he never liked sleeping by himself. Hell, he never even liked being in a _house_ alone. That was why, when he moved out of his dad's penthouse, he chose to stay with the Tofu Man. At least then, he reasoned, he wouldn't have to sleep in a lonely apartment with no one to talk to. Of course, as soon as moved to Hokkaido, he made sure to spend as much time with Shuji and as little time in his new apartment as possible. Akira hated loneliness.

That was one of the reasons he loved Shuji so much. Even though smiled while he lied to everyone and pretended that he wasn't even remotely associated with Akira or Nobuta, everything he did was because he was just as lonely as Akira was. He was afraid of being alone, just like Akira. In that aspect, Akira mused, they were truly birds of a feather. They would both go as far as they needed to in order to suppress the awful feeling of being alone.

Shuji sighed, stirring Akira from his thoughts, and said "Come on, I'm kinda hungry. Let's go get some dinner, okay?" He grabbed Akira absentmindedly by the wrist and dragged him downstairs in search of food.

Several hours later, after they had finished dinner and watched a long movie on television to the point of exhaustion, they dragged themselves up the stairs to Shuji's bedroom. Only half awake, Shuji noticed that Akira's futon hadn't been made up yet. However, neither of them was in any mood to do anything about it, and the two boys collapsed on Shuji's bed. Shuji registered somewhere at the back of his mind that right now, Akira was not on the futon, and, judging from the boy's equally tired expression, was not going to be moving anytime soon.

Normally, he would have been extremely annoyed that, despite his best efforts, Akira would be sleeping in his bed again. But at that moment, he was too tired to care about anything except getting some sleep.

Shuji nudged Akira so he could lift the covers and climb in. Slightly annoyed at having to move again, Akira groaned wearily and got under the covers next to Shuji. As sleep claimed Shuji, he barely noticed the warm arms that wrapped themselves around his slender waist or even the head that snuggled into his shoulder.

"Oyasumi, Shuji-kun…"

Shuji was dreaming again. And it was the same dream that had rudely crawled into his brain several days ago and made itself at home in his head. Almost every single detail was identical; the room, the wall in front of him, the couch. Even the positions he and Akira were in were the same. Shuji groaned as he peered through the eyes of his dream self once again. He could tell immediately he was not going to enjoy this.

Slowly and torturously, the scenario began to play out, just as it had the other night. Dream Akira wiggled into Shuji's chest and took hold of his hand. Once again, Shuji noted irritably that he couldn't control anything his body did, and so was very annoyed that said body was trying to touch as much of Akira as was humanly possible.

But Shuji realized that something was definitely different this time. It occurred to him that if he concentrated hard enough, he found he could actually feel some sensations this time. It was faint, but it was definitely there.

"Maybe if I concentrate really hard, I can move him and run away," he wondered desperately. He focused all his attention on letting go of Akira's hand. Nothing happened. "Damn. Guess I'm stuck here again then… Argh! This is almost, _almost_, as bad as being tied to a chair and forced to watch golf…eww…golf!"

The dream continued to play out, and currently Akira was saying those dreaded words that made Shuji wish for the ability to teleport out of this dream, or at least to cover his ears. "Shuuji-kun! I love you…almost as much as soy milk!" Joke. Smile. Cling.

"Aren't I more important than some beverage?" Shuji felt himself say. He felt like kicking himself for saying something that embarrassing to Akira. Even if it was just a dream, it still mattered to him; if he got into a habit of saying stupid things like that, he would never become popular ever again. Shuji knew what the next line would be, but that didn't make it any less frustrating to have to watch. This was like some horrible play he could not stop acting out.

GASP. "You're making me choose between my mamechichi and Shuji-kun?! Akira SHOCK!" Shuji tried to keep his mouth shut again. Still no luck. "Maybe I should make it a little easier for you to decide?" Wink. Now came the really awkward part. He was going to have to kiss Akira again. Why couldn't he just have a nightmare or something?

His body leaned into Akira's, preparing to lock lips. Shuji gave up trying to move; it was no use. He couldn't get out of this dream no matter how hard he tried. He wandered vaguely what the real thing would feel like, but quickly derailed that train of thought. This dream would end in a couple minutes, and it would do him no good to wander what Akira was like at kissing. Dream Akira's lips collided with his own, and to Shuji's continued surprise, instead of the nothingness he had felt several nights ago, he could actually _**feel**_ what they were doing, and his lips felt like they were on fire.

_**In a good way…**_

Had Shuji in control of his dream body, his eyes would've been wide open in shock. Dream Akira moaned softly and he felt a torrent of emotion flood his senses. Shuji melted into the kiss, and any frustration he had felt at not being able to leave this dream were suddenly replaced with hunger and an overwhelming need for what he was doing to Akira right now. His own blood was burning him from the inside, and it felt so god damned good! He knew he shouldn't be doing this, but he couldn't help but not care at that moment.

Every inch of him that came into contact with dream Akira felt warm and tingly. Shuji tried to deepen the kiss, but he could not; his body would allow no changes to be made to the script of this dream. Shuji cursed whatever was making him feel and do these things to Akira. Every single cell in his dream self's body was crying out to do even more to Akira. He felt his tongue slip past Akira's plump lips, into the boy's warm mouth, earning him another moan. Shuji could have shivered.

As good as kissing Akira felt, he tasted even better. No, better was not a good enough word to describe it. Shuji could feel his brain clouding up. He realized there was only one way to put it, and the words '**fucking addictive' **flashed in neon green inside his head. Another wave of emotion crashed through his insides, and he knew right then and there that he didn't want to stop this. He wanted Akira. He wanted to devour every little inch of Akira. Shuji wondered briefly why he stopped caring that this was Akira he was making out with. Akira was still his friend, still a guy, and still annoying as hell, so why did Shuji not try to ignore this? This wasn't even the real Akira, he reminded himself for the one hundredth time. He should stop this. "Come on, just ignore it, think of what you ate for lunch today! Ignore him! Disconnect! Come on!!!" he tried to tell himself desperately.

But a little voice somewhere at the back of his head was yelling, "No, no, no! It's not important! This feels good! Take him, damn it! So what if he's not the real one? That's even better! He'll never know!" and he couldn't help but agree. After all, it was just a dream wasn't it? Having a little fun in a dream couldn't hurt…it wasn't real. And although Shuji suspected this might just have been the endorphins, adrenaline and tingliness talking, he went back to concentrating on doing the job at hand. The job being Akira, of course.

Their tongues battled briefly for domination, before dream Akira once again let Shuji take the lead. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his hands go up Akira's shirt, and felt the soft skin that was warm on his fingers and begging to be touched. Shuji's lip trembled; Akira's skin was so very much like a drug, and he the last of his self control leave him. As his hands roamed further, he noticed with some embarrassment that he had been right the other night; there was definitely a bulge.

For the moment, he ignored it. Right now, stripping Dream Akira of every single piece of clothing sounded like a wonderful idea. Unfortunately though, he was still incapable of controlling his movements, which meant that he would have to wait. Shuji groaned mentally, this would take forever. Oh well, at least he was allowed to make out with Akira.

But, as if trying to further aggravate Shuji, dream Akira chose that exact moment to pull away and look at stare at him, eyes filled with adoration. Shuji felt like a vampire who's victim had been ripped away after just a few drops of blood had been tasted, and now being dangled cruelly in front of him. He felt like screaming, or crying, or possibly both simultaneously.

"Shuuji-kun…I love you! More than soy milk, daccha!" Smile. Giggle. Kon kon. "Now, are we gonna do it here, or are we moving to the bed, do you think?" he said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Just as Shuji was about to hug Akira for such a brilliant suggestion, he watched the object of his attention for the last few minutes go fuzzy and fade away.

"NOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOO!!!!!"

As Shuji lay tossing and turning and groaning in his sleep, Akira opened an eye sleepily and wondered what his friend was dreaming about. Obviously, it had to have been important, if it made him wiggle around enough to wake Akira from the wonderful dream he had just been having that involved skinny (A/N: cries okay, I think it's out of my system) dipping in a pool filled with vanilla flavoured mamechichi. He peered over Shuji (somehow they had switched places in their sleep) at the clock on the bedside table. It was flashing 6:30 in bright green numbers. "Too early," he mumbled, glancing briefly at Shuji's sleeping figure before falling asleep again for another thirty minutes.

Back in Shuji's dream, he had arrived once again in the dark room with the chair. This time however, it seemed the his, ahem ,libido had gotten there first. Wearing black bondage pants and an expensive looking white slashed shirt bearing the words "Dressed to Kill", no less. It was sitting there calmly with it's legs crossed and it's head resting on it's palm, looking intently at Shuji. There was a small, knowing smile on it's lips.

Shuji waited for the flirting, the innuendo, and suggestions that he needed to get laid. It never came. His libido continued to smile, not saying a word. Shuji scowled, he knew what his libido was thinking. That he was a hypocrite. That he was a pervert who was easily seduced by his own dreams. That he would be lying if he dared to say he didn't find Akira hot. But, IT.JUST.SMILED.

"Well, aren't you going to say something? I'm sure you know exactly what just happened. So go ahead, say it! Call me a liar, go on!" Shuji screamed. The libido smiled a little wider and stuck out it's tongue at the boy. Then, just as it and the rest of the room began to fade again, it finally spoke, voice filled with amusement.

"I told you so…"

Somehow, Shuji thought, this was worse.

When Akira got up again, it was 7:00. He blinked slightly and yawned. "Ah…I should probably get up now," he thought sleepily. He glanced over at his friend for the second time that morning. "He's so pretty when he sleeps," he chuckled softly. Akira brushed a perfectly taken care-of stray hair from Shuji's face, his hair scrunchie having mysteriously disappeared under the huge duvet during the night. Without it, he seemed to have developed a bit of a bed head.

Akira wondered why he didn't he didn't just leave the hair scrunchie, as he looked so much sexier without it. "Why is saying 'I love you' harder than it sounds?" he wondered sadly. "Oh well, maybe I should drown out my sorrows with some of that soy milk I spotted in Shuji-kun's fridge! Yosh!"

Akira smiled as he got out of bed, humming a little tune as he headed for the kitchen to pour them both a glass of his beloved soy milk.

While Akira was tripping over things in Shuji's kitchen, his host was waking up in a cold sweat. "Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit!" he chanted under his breath, sitting up and panting heavily as the scenes of his dream flashed through his brain. "FUCK! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!" Shuji put his fingers lightly to his lips; the phantom taste of dream Akira was still lingering there.

He froze suddenly, having just remembered that Akira slept in his bed last night. Crap.

"This is soooo bad…oh god, I hope Koji hasn't neglected to tell me that I've been a sleep talker all these years, or I'm so fucking screwed right now!" He took a deep breath and looked around the room. Where was the idiot? He couldn't have scared him off in his sleep or something, could he? But Shuji quickly turned down that thought quickly; if it had been that easy to get rid of the hyperactive boy, he would have been Akira-free ages ago.

Just then it occurred to him that, sleep talker or not, he was screwed anyway. If it had been any other dream, Shuji wouldn't care, but this was different. Shuji wasn't stupid in any way, and he knew exactly what had been going on in his dream; unlike the other night, he had lusted after Akira. And worse yet, he had enjoyed every second of it. "Okay, calm down. I just need to make sure I ignore it. No one will know, and things can just go on as usual," he thought.

Just then, Akira skipped into the room carrying two glasses of soy milk and smiling his million watt smile. He plopped onto the covers and handed Shuji one of the glasses with a cheery "Kon kon!" as his other hand nibbled at Shuji's ear. The boy's reddened at the physical contact and swatted the fox puppet away. Shuji could not deal with Akira's little gestures or touches right now. Not when he almost done something far more intimate to him in his dream. The dream he had been thoroughly enjoying, for that matter.

For a second, Shuji thought he saw Akira's lips twitch, but dismissed it a second later. Nothing could make Akira sad, he thought. It was just not Akira. The taller boy chuckled, masking the disappointed that threatened to reveal itself in his face, and sipped some of his soy milk. "Mmm…o-i-shi!" he sang happily, oblivious to the milk moustache that had just formed above his upper lip.

Shuji resisted the sudden impulse to lick it off for him. He was having a lot of those pesky impulses lately, and it was starting to piss him off. Especially since they seemed to be getting progressively worse. He wondered briefly what Akira would do if he acted on any of them. "Probably scream and try to scrub off his face or something," he thought bitterly.

An hour and a half later they rushed into the bathroom to try to find a hiding place. They had just spent the last fifteen minutes running, once again, from their terrifying fan club. Shuji was starting to wonder if they would ever be rid of those creepy people. Akira looked positively terrified. While they were running, the boy had gotten slightly out of breath and had foolishly slowed down, only to have a hand (_not_ belonging to Shuji) dart out and grab his ass. HARD. Akira pulled slightly on the waistband of his pants and peeked inside. He winced when he noted that there were claw marks on his right butt cheek.

Shuji ignored Akira's crude self-examination and busied himself with sorting out his messy hair. He scowled; they had no idea how much time it took him to get it sorted out, and now his whole look was ruined! But to Shuji's amusement, when he looked to his friend, Akira was no longer checking for claw marks, but also fixing up his hair. He gaped; Akira didn't strike him as the kind who cared whether or not his hair looked good.

"Akira? What are you doing?" he asked curiously. Akira chuckled loudly and said, "What, you think I can achieve a superly perfect hair parting like this" -he pointed to his fringe- "with sheer luck? Baka!" he laughed, draping his arm over Shuji's shoulder nonchalantly and regarding the mirror with curiosity.

For about a minute they both just stood there, looking at their reflections; Shuji's rolling it's eyes, grudgingly accepting the physical contact and looking pretty in a bored kind of way; Akira's smiling like it knew the all secrets of life, and maintaining that ever present cute, happy-go-lucky air.

Akira broke contact with the mirror and glanced at Shuji. He was being himself for once. In fact, ever since he arrived, it seemed like Shuji might stop masquerading as the guy _**everyone**_ had to love, and be the person he'd become friends with. The guy who worried that deep down he was bad. The guy who cared enough about his little brother that he would leave his old school behind so the kid didn't get picked on. The guy who, if he felt that you were being treated wrongly, would secretly help you gain the courage to smile again. The only guy Akira had deemed wonderful enough to love wholeheartedly.

Shuji started to feel uncomfortable under Akira's intense gaze. It felt like the boy was analyzing his soul or something. "Hey, what are you staring at? Is there something on my face I can't see with this mirror right in front of me?"

That seemed to snap Akira out of his reverie. He blinked several times before he realized he had been staring at Shuji again. It was happening more and more often these days, although usually Shuji didn't notice. He smiled self-consciously, and said "No…nothing that hasn't always been there…"

Shuji was about to reply to Akira's cryptic answer, but stopped when he heard squealing and shouts of, "He said they went this way! Come on! They must be in the bathroom around that corner there! Don't let them get away! I haven't gotten any good pictures yet!"

Shuji and Akira looked at one another frantically, then around the bathroom. It would be stupid to think they could hide anywhere in the bathroom, and the fan club would, from what they had already seem, have no moral problems checking each and every one of the stalls. The window was not an option either, unless both of them spontaneously gained the ability to ooze through metal bars. There only option at that moment, they figured, was to make a dash for it and hope they weren't spotted on the way out.

"Run for it!" Shuji mouthed, so that they wouldn't be heard. Akira did not need to read lips to know what he meant. They pulled their jackets over their heads and pushed through the door into the hallway. Just then, they heard the squeals get louder, and broke into a dead run, dodging classmates all the way. "This is going to be a loooong year," Shuji thought irritably.

Two hours later, a very aggravated Shuji sat in the music room that quickly becoming the only sanctuary they had from their malicious fans. Akira was, for the first time since he got there, not eating with lunch with Shuji. The teacher had caught him in the process of writing a note to Shuji in class. Fortunately for the redhead, his name hadn't been on the note, so only Akira got in trouble. That didn't mean Shuji felt any better about sitting here alone. He felt sort of guilty that right now, Akira was being forced to scrape gum off the desks in their classroom.

He sighed and closed the lid of his lunch box. "Maybe I should just go sit in the cafeteria…if I can find it," he wondered out loud. He left the music room and walked morosely through the hallway, but was soon interrupted by someone calling his name. He turned to see a girl from his class with frosted pink lipstick, long light brown hair with blond highlights, and a range of accessories that read like a PR campaign for half the world's brand names came running towards.

"Hey, Kiritani-san! Wait up!" she called. Shuji realized she was one of the three girls that had blocked their exit from class yesterday. He smiled nervously; ever since he got there, Akira was always right there. He hadn't really spoken to anyone else, and hadn't really felt the need to. 'Perhaps now would be a good time to start socializing. At this rate, I'll never be popular again. She looks irritating, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. She's got _nothing_ on Akira when it comes to being annoying, _no one _does,' he thought.

"Yes…? I'm sorry, I don't remember your name…" he apologized. The girl laughed a fake girly laugh and said "Oh, I'm Kubota Yuriko. Sorry, I should have introduced myself yesterday, but it seemed like you and Kusano-san were in a hurry. But it doesn't seem like he's here…"

Shuji nodded. "He's…busy with something. Is there something you wanted?" he asked Yuriko, who was fiddling habitually with her skirt. "Something? Uh…oh yeah! I wanted to ask if you want to come sit with me and a couple of my friends downstairs. 'And if I can help it, keep you away from that boy…'she thought bitterly, while maintaining a sweet smile.

Shuji considered this for a second. Since Akira was still scraping gum off tables, he figured it might be better to get to know some of the people here. After all, you can't become popular if you only ever talk to one person.

"Sure, why not? It's not like I have anything better to do. Maybe you could even give me a small tour? I haven't been here very long, so I haven't seen all that much of the school," he said. He felt his old mask slip comfortably into place. The default false smile materialized and all unease disappeared from his features and voice. That disposable personality clipped into place, and Fake Shuji was back.

Yuriko tugged persuasively on Shuji's arm and said, "Come on, lets go meet my friends. I'm sure they'll just _love_ you.

On the other side of the school the "Society for the Appreciation and Study of Human Beauty" was carefully listening to Sadako's information and making notes. This might all have been alright, of course, if by "Society" they didn't mean rabid fan club, "Appreciation" wasn't their term for sexual harassment, "Study" wasn't code for stalking, and "Human Beauty"…a beating-around-the-bush phrase for anything young, male, two-legged and pretty.

"So, what you're saying is, they're best friends? From Tokyo? Hmm…that's a little odd, why would they move here together?" said Hayashiko Esumi. Esumi was the Society's radical president and leader. She had previously been charged with trespassing, breaking and entering, stalking eight people (three to the point of paranoia), and thirty seven counts of sexual harassment, and she had no intention of slowing down. To Esumi, breaking the law was never a big deal.

"They're _extremely_ close too," said Sadako, as the sound of pens scribbling away fanatically filled the room. "I've seen them; Kusano is always following Kiritani around, and hanging on him. I've never seen anyone so touchy feely before. They hardly talk to anyone, and they always eat lunch away from everyone else." Esumi smiled mischievously as she listened to the girl speak. These boys were turning out to be extremely interesting.

"It's kinda odd, but Kiritani's file says he was extremely popular and friendly, according to his teachers…but Kusano was kind of a loner." She pulled out her notepad, flipping through the pages to make sure she hadn't missed anything. "Oh, and Kusano? He's fucking _loaded_. Father owns a big company in Tokyo." She closed her notebook, looked Esumi straight in the eyes and smiled knowingly.

They were both silent for a moment. It was the kind of silence where you weren't silent because you had nothing to say, but because you didn't need to; there was an unspoken understanding. "There's more…isn't there?" Esumi said finally.

"Oh, hell yes. And this isn't from any file. While I was being mislead by those two tramps who I thought were my friends, I was watching those guys. Like I said, Kusano is clingy. Kiritani seems hate it, but he doesn't seem to want to separate from Kusano for more that a couple minutes. I swear, my gay-dar goes off every time I see them." She paused briefly to examine their facial expressions, smiled again, and continued.

"It gets better. By sheer luck, I was walking home last night and I saw them riding somewhere together. I listened in on their conversation; it turns out Kusano is staying with Kiritani. But I don't know why yet. From what I can tell, Kusano doesn't live with him, and by the size of those bags he was carrying, it probably wasn't a sleepover…although I think a bed might be involved somewhere…if you know what I mean," she said, winking shamelessly and lightly nudging a fanboy to her right. She was slightly surprised to see him suddenly grow mopey and sad. "Damn…" he whispered.

Esumi grinned wolfishly at the thought of those two as a couple. It amused her even more that they were not aware of how far she and her fellow members would go to know everything there was to know about them. After all, how often did two boys that pretty who happened to be… "best friends," land right in the fanclub's lap? Unfortunately, not very often.

As in never. Which meant that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, which she sure as hell wasn't going to waste.

Most people thought that their society was limited to the school. Most people thought wrong. In actuality, they were a vast, enormous fan club, and there was hardly a city in the entire country that didn't have a member or two living there. Esumi was extremely proud to know that she had converted each and every one of them, with the help of her website. It was good to know there were people that agreed with her views about beauty, and the fact that it needed to be captured on film and taken advantage of. Enjoyed.

And she was very passionate about those views.

Akira was extremely bored. Mind-blowingly, stupifyingly, dangerously _bored_. And now, to make matters worse, a girl wearing way too much perfume and makeup was watching like he was about to announce the week's winning lottery numbers, and it was starting to creep him out.

His punishment had been gross, to say the least, and right now, he just wanted to find Shuji. His friend had not been in the music room where they ate their lunches, so he resorted to wondering around while trying his best not to look like himself. Luckily, it seemed people were leaving him alone. Well, at least until that girl showed up.

Boring. Boring. BORING. That's what it was when there was no Nobuta around to produce and hang out with, and no Shuji to annoy and cling to. If only Shuji hadn't been so damn hard to leave be…well, they probably would never have been friends, so it was a good thing he was. But occasionally Akira wondered if he was just setting himself up for unhappiness. As soon as Shuji found out, he figured the guy would probably be a little freaked out, and things between them would get awkward. At the very least, he probably wouldn't let Akira touch him ever again, either.

He shook his head; this was exactly why he hated being bored. He always started brooding over depressing things as something to do. He looked around, and saw that the girl was still following him. He wondered if she was part of that scary fan club.

That was another reason he missed Tokyo. He may have been ostracized as the loud weirdo, but at least people didn't stalk or try to rape him there. He still had bruises on his ass from earlier.

"Where is Shuji? He said he'd wait for me, why wasn't he there? I hope nothing happened to him…if anyone touches him, I'll kill them! That's my job, damn it!

Shuji was back in the game. All of Yuriko's many friends were eating out of the palm of his hand. He hardly knew their names, but he was sure he'd get the hang of it soon. The girls in particular seemed to love him. "Kiritani-kun! You're so funny!" said one of the girls when he told a joke he'd heard in Tokyo. "You're absolutely hilarious! Seriously, do you have a girlfriend?"

If he could have, he would have rolled his eyes. One of the downsides of being a charming, perfect guy was that he heard that question at least twenty times before he had started having lunch with Mariko. At the time, he had found the lunches to be really useful for getting rid of those kinds of girls.

He smiled charmingly and said, "No, I don't. But there is a girl back in Tokyo I like. Although I'm pretty sure she's not interested." Well, it wasn't a complete lie. The 'girl back in Tokyo' was Nobuta, and he did like her, just not in the way he had implied. There _was_ someone he liked, of course, but hell would freeze over before he would actually become friends with these people and tell them he had a thing for Akira. He was pretty sure they'd scatter like birds in a forest, too.

He could already tell that most of the people here were more falsely nice than he was, even though he had turned this into an art form. A very twisted art form, but an art form none the less.

Yuriko laughed. "Don't you already have a boyfriend, Yukie-chan? Or are you thinking of trading up?" She winked at Shuji and turned back to Yukie, who was looking rather annoyed at being denied the chance of getting rid of the idiot she was dating for someone better looking. "I was just asking him a simple question. Don't jump to conclusions!" she said, glaring angrily at Yuriko.

"Kiritani-kun? If the…girl you like, isn't interested, would you like to go with me instead? Cause I sure as hell am interested" said Yuriko, smiling and ignoring Yukie's glares, and those of every other girl at the table.

Shuji was having a moral dilemma. "Damn, she's so forward! If I say no, they'll think I'm picky! And if I say yes, it'll be Mariko all over again…except that Mariko wasn't fake and whiny! God!" he thought, while trying to maintain his façade. Suddenly, it struck him that even if she was whiny and fake, this might solve another problem he was more worried about. If he went out with her and tried to get himself to like her, he didn't have to worry about losing Akira's friendship. And they'd probably become the school's It-couple in no time.

"Hmmm...I'll think about it. Can I have your number? I'll call you once I've made up my mind," he said. Good. Now he could decide while there weren't seven other people judging his every move. Yuriko looked ecstatic and pleasantly surprised that he even asked for her number. Sure, he hadn't said yes yet, but she'd change that soon. "Oh, of course Kiritani-kun! Or can I call you 'Shuji-kun?'"

**O**

**O**

**O**

**To Be Continued…**

_Erg! I get__ the feeling I'm being too descriptive in this chapter. Am I? Well, anyway…um…I'm glad this chapter is finished. It's taken me months to finish, with one thing and another getting in the way of my writing, but that's life for you. The plot is getting more and more complicated in my head than when I first started this fic. I originally wanted to write it as a four chapter long fic, but I don't think I'm going to have it finished by the next chapter. I'm thinking, five or six chapters long now. Wow. Its now a total of 43 pages, at an average of 14-15 pages a chapter. And yes, as I said before, Akira is going to be uke. No question about it. Also, there will still be a lemon, I just have to figure out one or two…um…kinks…before I get to work on that. Please check out my other Shuji to Akira fic if you have the time. Its called "One Week of Shuji to Akira" and it's a series of drabbles._

_Please comment! Ja ne!_


	4. Stalkers and Fakers

A Mystery to the Both of Them

**A Mystery to the Both of Them**

**Title:** A Mystery to the Both of Them

**Chapter: **Stalkers and Fakers

**Series: **Nobuta wo Produce

**Pairing: **Shuji to Akira of course w

**Genre:** Comedy and Romance (with a hint of angsty depressions)

**Rating: **Currently PG-13, but probably going way up in a couple chapters

**Dedicated to:** Meru, because you're awesome. I still hope you might read this at some point…

**War****ning: **I'm prone to bouts of over-descriptiveness. Other than that, boyxboy.

**A/N****: **Erg. By the time I finish this thing, it'll probably be the next year already. (Edit: Already next year) I know I suck at updating. But hey, an average of one chapter every 3-4-5 months isn't that bad is it? Okay, I take that back. It's terrible. And I'm terrible for hassling some of you to update your stories when I suck at it myself. So, sorry about that. I'll try to post more chapters more often. In the mean time, pimp check out my other stories! /pimp Cookies for those who can guess what the homework scene was inspired by -w-. Also, I would like to blame Shuji and Akira for my recently acquired coffee milk addiction. Packaged juice companies are going to make a fortune off me, I can feel it. v.v; Anyway…it occurs to me that I always start to ramble in this area, so next time, I'll try to keep it short. Enjoy the chapter, and please review!

_**Stalkers and Fakers**_

"_Oh, of course Kiritani-kun! Or can I call you 'Shuji__-kun?'"_

"Um, I think 'Shuji' is alright, if you want to call me that," he lied. He didn't like the way she said his name. She stressed all the wrong parts and made it sound like a combination between a budgie and a foghorn. She didn't sing it like Akira or say it calmly and sincerely like Nobuta. Even the people he used to hang out with before his fall from grace hadn't hurt his ears when they'd said it. He was getting the uncomfortable feeling that he wasn't going to enjoy her company.

Shuji was saved from speaking to her any further by the sound of the bell, signalling the end of lunch. 'Thank god!' Shuji thought, closing the lid of his bento and bidding farewell to Yuriko's friends. 'I forgot how stressful that was,' he thought irritably.

He walked through the hall, relieved that he was finally free again, and wondered what he was going to do about Yuriko. Suddenly, he felt a pair of strong hands clamp onto his shoulders. His eyes grew wide and he froze in mid-step, not daring to turn around. Still frozen by fear, it took him a second to register the finger that snaked around his chest to softly poke him on the cheek.

"Found ya! " Akira said cheerfully. "Where were you Shuuji-kun? I looked everywhere for you! Akira's nails are all ruined! Hidoi, HI-DO-I!" he looked sadly at his chipped cuticles.

Shuji groaned, shook Akira off, and lightly whacked him on the shoulder. "Idiot! Don't scare me like that! I thought I had just been caught by one of those creepy fangirls! I thought I was a goner!"

Akira chuckled and "Kon kon"-ed at Shuji. "Akira scared Shuji? Is Akira scary? But Akira doesn't even have his Dracula fangs in! Or…wait" -he checked his teeth in case they had suddenly gotten pointy- "Nope! No fangs! Don't worry, Akira won't bite Shuji! Kon!" he said, resting his head happily Shuji's shoulder.

Shuji sighed. Had it been any other person, he would have told them to stop talking in the third person, and stop acting cutesy. But with Akira, he just couldn't. It would be like telling the moon not to be shine, or commanding the fish to stop needing water. No, that would be a waste of energy.

"Come on, lets get to class," he said, nudging Akira in the side. "I'll tell you what happened later."

"Gero-gero…okay!"

"EH?! A girl likes Shuji?! Who is it, tell me!!" Akira yelled as they were cycling home from school. He almost crashed into the seawall again when Shuji told him about what happened at lunch. 'Crap, I have competition!' he thought.

Shuji rolled his eyes and continued biking. Akira always seemed to over-react to every little thing. "I just got her number, that's all. I'm not even sure if I'll call her or not."

Akira was silent for the next few minutes, and seemed to be deep in thought. "Do you like her, Shuji-kun?" Shuji looked puzzled for a second. How could he like her when he'd only just met her? "I don't know. Too early to know. I'll have to wait and see," he said, moving a lock of hair that obscured his right eye and looked up at the sky. There were thick, grey, angry clouds forming in the distance. He pointed to the sky and said, "We'd better speed up, it's going to be one hell of a thunderstorm."

Akira breathed a sigh of relief. 'There's still time. I haven't lost the fight before it's started.' They doubled their speed when it started to rain until they got to Shuji's house and stored their bikes in the garage.

"Ugh! I'm all wet! This is going to take forever to dry! I'll get us some towels from the bathroom," said Shuji. They were in his living room, dripping water all over the new carpet, much to his father's displeasure.

"Go get changed! You'll both get sick if you stand here in wet uniforms! And clean up the water while you're at it, I'm not a housekeeper. "Hai, 'tousan. Be right there!" Shuji called from upstairs.

While Akira waited in the living room and tried to get as much water out of his hair as he could, Koji walked in out of the kitchen, looking very irritated about something. "Akira-san, where did nii-chan go? I need him to help me with my English project!" he said, plopping himself down on the couch in despair. Akira chuckled softly, half because of the tiny hair fountain standing proudly on top of his head, half because he could see how much of a drama queen the kid was becoming.

"Upstairs, getting towels, cha! Ano…why do you look so unhappy, Koji-chan?" he said sitting down on the couch closest to the boy. "The homework can't be that bad…"

"Erg! Yes it is! It's due tomorrow! I have to write a whole essay on some old play, in English! The entire play is in Olde English! I can't even figure out what it's about! And what the hell does "Alas" mean anyway?!" Akira raised a surprised eyebrow. It seemed high schools were getting really serious about having kids learn English, especially if they were resorting to making them learn old plays written in a language that barely even resembled the broken English he and Shuji spoke. No wonder the kid looked so unhappy. "What's the play called?"

"Romeo and Juliet."

Akira laughed at the boy's unhappy expression. "Romeo and Juliet?! How can you not know what 'Romeo and Juliet' is about? It's like the most famous love story ever!" Akira giggled. Koji was not amused. "I don't know, I don't really like that Shoujo manga-ish stuff…romance has never looked really interesting to me. Why, what's so special about Romeo and Juliet?"

Akira twirled his hair a little, not seeming to notice the large puddle of rain water that was forming on the floor in front of him. "They were these two star-crusted lovers…or something like that."

Koji sat very still for a few moments. A mental image that was very different from that of Akira was forming and he was getting even more confused than before the conversation started. "You mean they wore lots of glitter?" he asked, puzzled as to why that would make them the world's most famous couple. Although, from what he had seen on the few occasions he had looked at Shoujo manga, there seemed to be quite of lot of sparkles in the backgrounds, so maybe it wasn't that weird.

"Iie, iie…I meant that they were a tragic couple," Akira said, trying to stifle the laugh that the boy's naivety almost coaxed out of him again. "They wanted to be together, but everyone around them hated each other. Their families didn't want them to get married, a lot of other sad stuff happened, they secretly got married, really bad stuff happened, and they died together after a misunderstanding. The end," finished Akira, looking very pleased with his storytelling skills.

"Ah," said Koji. He nervously ran his fingers through his hair, as if he was thinking about something troublesome. "Demo… the topic of the essay is… '"Whether I think Romeo was actually in love with Juliet and vice versa, or whether he just made himself love her to get over breaking up with Rosaline and she felt the need to pick someone good-looking that her parents didn't match her up with to get married to,"' he read off the crumpled paper in his hands.

"Well I thi--" Akira began, but was interrupted by the sound of Shuji coming down the stairs with a large pile of towels. "I finally found some damn towels, had to look through twelve boxes, but I found some slightly old ones the are still okay to use." He looked curiously at his brother, who seemed to be extremely put-out about something. "Okay, what's wrong now?"

Koji didn't answer. In fact, if anything, he looked even more miserable than before. Akira hopped up, skipped over to Shuji, and leaned to whisper, "Homework. Romeo and Juliet. Essay."

Shuji's face adopted a look of great sympathy as he sat down next to Akira. "I don't even know what half the stuff means! This is like university level work! Erg!" Koji whined. Shuji shook his head. "You know, maybe you should consider the internet?"

His brother's head shot up quickly. "That's brilliant! The internet!" he said, face lighting up with glee. "I can get a summery online and form an opinion from there! Thankyouthankthankyou niisan!" He pounced on Shuji and pulled him into a death-grip-like hug that could almost put Akira to shame. Almost.

"Yeah, sure whatever. Let go please, we need to go do homework too. Go…read or something." Koji whacked his brother in irritation, but let go and ran off to the kitchen. 'Thank god he's easier to get rid of than Akira. Looks like their won't be two of the idiot after all. Good thing too, I'm having enough trouble dealing with just ONE Akira.'

He noticed Akira was staring at him as if he had just kicked a puppy and he was feeling extremely guilty. "What?" he said, trying to ignore the expression on his friend's face. "We do need to do homework." He started to get irritated when Akira's face didn't change. "Stop looking at me like that, we do!" When the expression didn't go away after about a minute, Shuji chucked a towel at him.

The taller boy giggled happily and dried his hair, using the towel in such a way that it stuck up at all ends and looked at lot like a birds nest. Shuji smiled and dried off his own hair, before grabbing the rest of the towels and his bag. "Come on, before we ruin 'tousan's couches.

"Shuuji-kun."

No response.

"Shuuuuuuji-kun."

Still no response.

"Shhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuu-ji**-**"

"**-**What?! I'm trying to do homework here!"

"I'm bored Shuji. Entertain me please, daccha!"

Shuji took a second to appreciate the irony and said, "I'm studying, and my job is not being your personal entertainment. Don't you have any more homework to do? Since we're in the exact same class, I'm guessing you do."

Akira blew air past his lips in boredom. At that moment, he really didn't feel like working. He just wanted to have fun with Shuji, but Shuji was not cooperating.

For several minutes, the small scratches of a pencil scribbling away in hiragana and kanji were the only sounds in the whole room. That is, until it occurred to Akira that he had not showered since he left his apartment, and he really needed to clean his school uniform, as both sets he had were either damp, or smelled of saltwater.

"Shuji-kun..." he said again, kon-konning at his best friend's hair. "Can I have a shower please? I'm kinda cold and dirty. I haven't showered in ages and if I don't warm up soon I'll get hypothermia! Onegai shimasu!" He ended this rather dramatic announcement with a large pout.

Shuji raised an immaculate eyebrow and said, "You haven't showered in how long exactly? You should have told me earlier, baka! And you won't get hypothermia; you're not in cold water, just wet clothes." Shuji examined their uniforms and cringed. 'Should have thought of this earlier, it is kinda cold, now that I think about it…'

"So, does that mean I can go shower now?" Akira asked hopefully.

"Sure, why not. You know where the bathroom is. You don't need to ask me to shower. Just hurry up, I think I'll take one too.

"Hai!" Akira skipped off down the hall, humming to the tune of Shuji's ringtone. Two minutes later he was de-clothed and in the shower, complaining loudly about the water taking too long to warm up. Shuji shook his head and went back to his book, trying not to visualize whatever was going on in there.

In the shower, Akira was zoning out. He still had yet to do something about his feelings for Shuji and it was starting to annoy him that he didn't know what to do about them. And then of course there was that new girl chasing his would-be boyfriend. He refused to loose to a girl who knew nothing about Shuji and was only attracted to him superficially. He _refused_.

It occurred to him that if he dropped some hints, Shuji might get the idea and at least say something. It wasn't much of a plan he figured, but it was better than nothing.

"Ah! Cold water!" he shrieked, fumbling about for the tap, trying not to get splashed.

Shuji closed his history book with a snap. He wandered what was taking Akira so long, as the boy had been in the shower for half an hour already.

Speaking of the devil, Shuji heard the door shut in the hall and the sound of a pair of feet skipping towards the door. When it opened, Shuji was greeted by the sight of a half naked Akira dripping wet and giving off a cloud of steam as his skin was exposed to cold air.

"Buri-buri," he sang, spinning in circle and shaking his thankfully towel-cover bottom at Shuji and giggling happily.

"Oi! Hurry up and cover yourself!" A few of the old towels came flying towards Akira's head. Shuji was slightly annoyed that only a few of them reached there intended target, while their fluffy brethren landed in the hallway. He groaned and picked them up, ignoring Akira's amused chuckling. "Just put some clothes on, alright? I'm gonna have a shower and you'd better be decent by the time I'm done!" he said half jokingly.

"But why, Shuji-kun?" Akira looked down at himself quizzically. "I'm gorgeous _and_ decent!"

"I mean that you'll scare my brother."

"Nani?! How could anyone be scared of me?" he checked out his face in the nearest mirror to see if something was wrong.

Shuji sighed and headed off to the bathroom for a shower while Akira continued to stare at the mirror in confusion. He shook his head in confusion and plopped onto Shuji's bed and sprawled himself out in boredom, and softly blowing air through his lips. He sat like that for several minutes, wishing Shuji would hurry up and come back.

All of a sudden, he heard the sound of a familiar ringtone coming from Shuji's bag, and he scrambled to find the cell phone. "Ah! Kuso…" he clicked the answer button. "Moshi-moshi!"

"…Akira?"

His mouth fell open and he didn't speak for a couple seconds, before he snapped out of it and answered. "Nobuta! Hi, how are you? Daccha!" He spun in a circle excitedly, flapping his arms.

"I'm alright…Why are you answering Shuji's phone?" she asked.

Akira giggled for a couple moments, while Nobuta patiently waited for the answer she knew would come eventually, once the boy had composed himself long enough to speak coherently. "Ne, ne…I'm staying with Shuji-kun! Shuji said Akira should stay with him until we buy furniture for Akira's apartment, so here I am! Shuji's in the shower right now." He didn't even bother trying to mask the excited undertone in his voice. She knew, after all.

"…okay…how are things going then? Have you told him yet how you feel?"

"No. Not yet, no." He bit his lip nervously. "I haven't yet decided how I'm going to tell him, or what I'm going to say. I just hope I don't freak him out too much…" Dark thoughts started to creep into his mind before he pushed them aside.

"So he doesn't know then?"

"No…" he said sadly.

"Does he have any clue whatsoever?"

"…"

"Eto…maybe you should drop more hints? Or subtly bring up the topic of dating, ease him into the idea without making it obvious?" she suggested.

Akira thought this sounded a little bit complicated, which would not help him. His feeling for Shuji made things complicated enough. He sighed and said "No, I don't think that'll work. I'm sure I'll figure something out. You--"

He was cut off by Shuji walking through the door in his pyjamas and drying his hair with a small towel.

"Who are you talking to on my phone? And why aren't you decent yet?" Shuji added irritably.

"Nobuta-chan! It's Nobuta!" he turned back to the phone. "Shuji just walked in…wanna say hello, daccha?" There was silence on the other end, before she said yes. Akira handed the phone over to Shuji, who looked surprised but very happy.

"Hey, Nobuta? How are you?" He fidgeted briefly with the hem of his pyjama top, ignoring Akira, who was flailing back and forth across the room shouting "Nobuta! Nobuta! Nobuta! Chhhhhuuuuuu nyuuuuuuuuuu!" followed by a fit of giggles.

"I'm…good. Coping," she finished.

"Ah. Good. How are Mariko and everyone else?"

"Also good. She took me shopping with her yesterday. We had fun…I think I want to do it again. I eat lunch with her sometimes…she says she'll teach me how to be a better cook if I want."

"That's great!" he smiled brightly gave a thumbs up to Akira, who had stopped flailing in an attempt to listen in to the conversation. Sadly, Shuji's phone did not come with a speaker option. "She's alright, she's hanging out with Mariko," he whispered in an attempt to stop Akira from grabbing the phone out of his hands.

"So…Akira is staying with Shuji then?" he said after a while.

"Yes, the idiot didn't bother to buy anything for his apartment, so I thought it might be better to let him stay with me for a while. We should probably go shopping tomorrow after school." He noticed the towel around Akira's waist was starting to slip down now that he had starting skipping again. "AKIRA! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, DAMN IT!"

Akira stuck his tongue out and continued to bounce. Shuji gritted his teeth, trying to hang on to the last of his self-restraint. "If you don't put clothes on now, I'll dress you myself! Sorry, Nobuta, I have to go, we'll phone you back later tomorrow."

"Okay… Talk to you later then. Sleep well, bye." She clicked the 'end' button on her phone and sighed. She hoped they would make up their minds and just tell each other so they could both stop suffering and agonizing over one another.

On the other side of the phone line, Shuji had grabbed Akira by the waist and was struggling to force him into a pair of boxers and pyjamas. Trying his best to ignore the large amounts of Akira's naked skin he had just touched, he plopped down on the floor in exhaustion. Akira did the same, and they only got up again when he smelt food and opted to drag his friend down the stairs with him.

After dinner, they sat on Shuji's bed with a furniture catalogue his father had brought them and picked out potential couches and beds for Akira's apartment. Throughout the catalogue were several red circles which indicated the candidates. Shuji frowned in irritation for the twelfth time in ten minutes when Akira pointed out yet another impractically designed chair for the living room.

"How the hell would you sit on that?! You'd have to bend your spine in three places! And it's over-priced!" he reasoned. Akira pouted and pointed out an apple-green beanbag chair. "What about that one Shuji? It's comfy and squishy! You could use it as a giant stress ball!" he said, looking a little desperate. So far, Shuji had scrapped all of his suggestions. Shuji rubbed his forehead and nodded, "That ones fine. It's actually ideal…just make sure you get one that's durable, otherwise it'll burst and there will be white beads everywhere. What about your bed?"

This time, Akira didn't hesitate to flip right to the back of the catalogue to the bed section and point to the widest king size four-poster bed available, circled three times in red marker for emphasis and with little red hearts around it. It was also the most expensive, and impractical thing in the whole book. "I want," he smiled widely, "that one." Shuji was about to open his mouth to argue, but Akira shook his head defiantly. "Iie, Shuji! I'm not changing my mind. I want that one." The look in Akira's eyes told him not to bother trying to point out the downside to having something that big in a small apartment. For whatever reason, Akira wanted an inconvenient two person king size monster of a bed and wasn't going to budge.

"Alright, fine. Just don't blame me when the floor swallows you and your oversized bed" Shuji said irritably. "I don't know why you don't want a single bed. I mean, you're just one person, what would you need all that extra space for?" Akira went silent and turned his face away from Shuji.

"Do you think we should go grocery shopping while we're in town tomorrow? You're running low on mamechichi, kon-kon!" He nipped at Shuji's shirt with his fox puppet, hoping the boy wouldn't notice what he was trying to do. Shuji ignored the blatant attempt to change the conversation and stared at the hand. He observed Akira's nervous smile curiously, then shook his head to dismiss a thought. "Sure, dad wanted us to do it eventually. We might as well get it done tomorrow. So I suppose it'll be alright if we get a couple bottles of soy milk, as long as you don't over-do it."

"Yay! Shuji-kun is so good to me!" said Akira, swinging his arms around his friend and embracing him. Shuji felt the blood rush into his face when he leaned into the hug and they both lingered a little too long for comfort. He coughed and let go abruptly, fidgeting a little when he felt the other boy staring at him strangely. "I- I think we should get your futon out now. We forgot last night." More embarrassment followed when he remembered that they had slept curled up against one another the previous night. "Just…I'll go get it. You can put the sheets on, since you're sleeping on it."

Akira nodded silently as Shuji left the room. He ran his fingers over the paper image of the bed. Of course Shuji wouldn't understand, hell if he was going to explain it to him. He sighed sadly and hugged a pillow in annoyance. "Why couldn't I just have fallen for Nobuta for real? It would have been so much easier," he wondered ruefully.

After the futon had been prepared they both crawled into bed and talked about nothing for an hour. Eventually, Akira yawned and announced that he wanted to sleep, so Shuji turned out the light. He closed his eyes and listened to the sound of Akira and his own breathing for several minutes, though he didn't really feel like sleeping, in case a very unwelcome dream accompanied it.

But soon he too fell to the siren call of slumber and drifted off into a world only he could see.

"Crap!" he thought, "I fell asleep!" He looked once more through eyes that were his, but weren't, and chided himself for his own carelessness. For the third time since he arrived in the new city, he watched himself pawing and fawning over an imaginary Akira. Just like the previous night, he seemed to be capable of touch, but not movement. Within the recesses of his mind, he sighed and tried to block out the rush of feeling that threatened to engulf him and render him a hopeless pile of mush, or coerce him into doing something embarrassing.

It occurred to him that there was yet another difference in the dream that he hadn't noticed before. He could tell that there was something in his dream body's mind that was trying to pull him further into the dream, to force him into letting go again. As hard as he was fighting it, he could hear a voice calling to him, telling him to give in to it and surrender completely. "Shuuuuuji…look at him, Shuji," it whispered to him. "Can't you feel how soft his skin is? Isn't he handsome? Why don't you just let go…indulge a little, Shuji. He _wants_ you Shuji. Can't you see it in his eyes? These aren't just two random people; it's you and the boy you have feelings for. How can you resist something like that?"

He tried to avert his eyes but it wasn't working; closing them or trying to look away didn't work in this dream world. He could feel his grip slipping again. His other dream-senses were starting to awaken and he swore he could smell the intoxicating scent of warm food, the un-finished glasses of wine on the table in the next room, and the sweet, wheatey fragrance of faux milk on Akira's breath.

Shuji felt his mental restraints snap just as Dream Shuji kissed Akira and the dream continued to play out. He was rendered powerless yet again.

Akira lay in bed, trying and failing to fall asleep. Despite having told Shuji that he was tired, he wasn't having much luck with it. He kept worrying about how he was going to subtly let Shuji know that he wanted more than their friendship.

"Yep, this is gonna be really easy," he thought sarcastically. "No matter how I look at it, I don't see how he couldn't call me a selfish bastard or freak out." He shook his head sadly and was about to turn over, when he heard strange noises coming from Shuji's bed.

It sounded suspiciously like moaning, so Akira lay perfectly still, straining his ears and knitting his eyebrows in confusion. His mouth dropped and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when he heard what Shuji was mumbling in his sleep.

"Akira..." Shuji turned to the side and moaned again.

The dream was going further, he realized. He had already heard the question that had ended the dream the night before, and the Akira figure in front of him still hadn't faded away. He could tell that if it didn't end soon, waking up was going to be a little awkward the next morning, but at the same time, he didn't want it to end, consequences be damned.

Akira fiddled with one of the buttons on Shuji's shirt and smiled a wicked smile. Plump, moist lips found their way to his neck and left a trail of kisses upwards, until their owner found Shuji's bottom lip and sucked gently on it like a succulent velveteen strawberry. Shuji whimpered as the boy's long legs encircled his waist, drawing Akira closer to him and ensuring that his crotch was right below the others ass.

"I think the couch is fine, don't you?" his mouth said, before planting a soft kiss on his paramour's cheek. Akira smiled brilliantly and nodded, relinquishing the use of words in favour of simple uncomplicated body language.

"Shuji…daijoubu?" he asked. He couldn't tell in the darkness if there was something wrong or not, or if Shuji was even awake at all. He pushed the blankets aside and approached the bed cautiously, wondering if Shuji was having a nightmare. "Shuji?" he asked again. No response. Akira leaned over and shook him lightly to wake him.

Suddenly, a pair of arms shot out and pulled him on top of the duvet covers. 'Oh my god, he's asleep! He's—Oh…shit!' he thought, reddening that there was a rather obvious bulge under the duvet that was pressed against his thigh. 'He's _definitely_ not having a nightmare.' For a moment, Akira just lay there, trying to think what to do. He couldn't believe his misfortune. Shuji just _had_ to grab him while he was having a pervy dream.

'Kuso…If he wakes up…' He didn't need to finish that thought. It was pretty obvious that no matter what happened, it would be bad. It would be awkward at the very least. Shuji had inadvertently said his name in his sleep, convinced him to get up to check if something was wrong, and committed reverse molestation, and he would probably get blamed for it.

"Akira…"

Shuji was first to remove his shirt, and Akira was soon to follow. Tongues battled for dominance as Shuji's fingers were fingering the waistline of the other boy's boxers. Somewhere at the back of his mind he was aware that he had stopped protesting, and he figured it was probably something he could deal with later. Right now, he was rather enjoying this dream, and didn't really want to be disturbed.

So he was really ticked off when Akira once again dissolved before his eyes right before he had removed the boy's last piece of clothing. "For gods' sakes!"

As Shuji opened his eyes, the sight of Akira's lustful expression was replaced with…Akira's confused and panicky face, rather than the face of his libido. His **real** face. It took Shuji all of five seconds to realise that his arms were wrapped tightly around Akira's waist, that he was trying to get up, and had probably been doing so for a while if the bright redness in his cheeks and reluctance to look him in the face were anything to go by. He'd probably tried to wiggle out of Shuji's grip while trying not to wake him, as his hair was a little dishevelled and his pyjama shirt was missing two buttons. Somewhere in the background a light he assumed was lightning flashed ominously.

"Oh, shit! Akira!" he choked out, retracting his arms and sitting up in shock. "I'm…uh…what the hell just happened?" he finished lamely. Akira averted his eyes from his friends' face, concentrating instead on a spot on the wall farthest from Shuji. As much as he was trying to brush the incident off, he couldn't. "I was hoping you'd know," he said.

Shuji forced his eyes closed and ran a hand nervously through his hair – the scrunchie had disappeared in the confusion – and tried to breathe normally. "Look, let's just forget about it, okay? It's not important. I'm tired, so I think we should go back to bed. We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay?" He looked in Akira's direction, but he too was avoiding the other boy's eyes." Akira nodded hesitantly and got back under his own duvet. Shuji sank back under the covers and turned to face the wall, hiding the deep scarlet flush of shame and embarrassment.

At breakfast the next morning, neither of them looked at the other or said a word. Shuji was worried that Akira would leave as soon as possible after the previous night's catastrophe. Akira was trying to figure out what exactly had happened and why the hell he hadn't gotten out of there sooner. Both of them were scared of talking about it.

But since they were both going to school together, it was inevitable that they would eventually have to speak to one another, and Shuji was first to break the silence as they cycled to school. "So, which side are we going in today?" he asked, trying to change a subject that consisted of awkward subtext and unsaid words. Akira nearly crashed into a pole in shock, but managed to compose himself in time. "What do you mean, Shuji?" he said calmly.

"I mean when we get to school. Those people are probably waiting for us again," he explained. Realization dawned on Akira's face and he chuckled at his own misunderstanding. "Oh yeah! Almost forgot about them. Why won't they leave us alone, Shuji?"

'Because they're brainwashed and delusional and we're kind of good-looking,' he thought privately, but said, "I don't know, but it's starting to irritate me. They need to back off." Akira nodded in agreement. They hadn't had much peace since they got there and he just wanted to be alone with Shuji again.

Shuji wondered how the hell they were going to go unnoticed today. They had become sort of minor celebrities lately, and he had a feeling the fan club was bribing people into telling them where he and Akira were during lunch. "Let's try going round to the teacher's parking lot, if we act casual and don't draw attention we might be able to get in before they see us."

"Wakata, kon!"

Luck was on there side today, and they managed to get into school unnoticed by the fan club, but eyes with thick mascara and green eye-shadow watched them from a second floor window. Ami smiled when she noticed they seemed to be avoiding one another's eyes. 'Yuriko must be making progress then,' she thought.

Her eyes followed Shuji, her one and only obstacle. Even if their friendship was necessary at that moment if she wanted to be able to play Akira's saviour later, the boy was still frustrating her with his dogged and irritating intimacy with her target.

Nevertheless, if Yuriko played the game successfully, she would soon have a little toy to play with soon. 'Nothing like a broken boy to make you feel needed,' she thought. She turned around and continued back down the corridor, plotting all the way.

Chalk scratched loudly against a chalkboard and the sound of a dull teacher's voice filled the room like a boring, mind-numbing fog of noise. Five pairs of eyes watched Shuji and Akira inconspicuously as they passed each other notes again. This time, they were being careful not to get caught. Akira tossed a note that read:

_SO…WHAT ABOUT LAST NIGHT THEN? ARE WE GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT, OR ARE WE JUST GOING TO FORGET ABOUT IT? I DO NEED STUFF, YOU KNOW! _

_-AKIRA_

As soon as Shuji read out the note, his face showed only confusion. 'Huh? He needs stuff?' he wondered. 'What does he mean? Is talking about what happened or…?' He scribbled something on another piece of paper and chucked it at Akira's head.

_What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean by "I need stuff?!"Don't be so vague!_

Akira read the note once over and quickly replied with a new note.

_BAKA SHUJI! FURNITURE! ARE WE STILL GONNA GET MY FURNITURE TODAY? I WANT TO GO GET THE STRESS BALL CHAIR AND MY BED!_

Shuji breathed a sigh of relief when he read the new message. He chewed on his pen thoughtfully for a couple moments, before handing his reply to Akira.

_Sure, okay. We can go get it later. Something tells me that bed you want is going to be a nuisance to deliver though. If there's time, we should probably go get you a proper fridge and a microwave too._

He smile cheerfully and nodded to Shuji. "Okay," he whispered.

As soon as the lunch bell rang, they made a dash for the music classroom. As soon as they were in and were sure that they weren't being followed, they pushed a table against the door again and relaxed.

"Win for us!" said Akira, flashing Shuji the victory sign before digging in his bag for the bento Shuji had made for them the night before. He gazed lovingly at the three small rice balls he had personally decorated to look like three piggies, and the diced radish and carrot pieces in the shape of shuriken (Shuji would refuse even under the most horrific of tortures to admit they were actually supposed to be sakura-blossoms).

Shuji reached for his own lunchbox and tentatively reached for a piece of radish. Even though he had barely eaten at breakfast, he didn't really have much of an appetite. He was too worried about the moment where they would be forced to confront the truth of what'd happened the previous night, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to deal with it when it came. But he would have to, sooner or later.

"Ne, Shuji-kun?" said Akira, poking him in the shoulder with a chopstick.

"Yes?"

Akira drew an imaginary circle on the side of Shuji's arm with the food implement while he gathered his thoughts. "What do you think of me?"

Shuji stared at him curiously for a few moments. He didn't really know how to answer the question. He certainly couldn't say "Well, I have naughty dreams about you, as you might have noticed last night when we had that awkward moment when I grabbed you in my sleep and wouldn't let go, and I lust after you all the fucking time. Despite our wonderful friendship, all I really want to do is tear off your clothes and have my way with you in broad daylight. Oh, try the mochi, it's a little lumpy but it came out okay." That just wouldn't work period. Instead he sugar-coated it to his liking.

"You're my best friend. I care about you. Why do you ask?" he said, knowing exactly why he did. An uncomfortable silence crept through the room as Akira studied Shuji's face for something. When he didn't find it, he said "Shuji-kun, why do you think that Nobuta--"

He was interrupted by the sound of knocking on the door. Someone on the other side cleared their throat. "Kiritani-san? Are you in here? I need to talk to you. And I think it would be in your best interest to listen to what I have to say.

Shuji looked at Akira in confusion. "What the hell?" he mouthed. He walked over to the door but didn't open it. "Who is that, why should I talk to you?" he said irritably. The sound of familiar obnoxious giggles seeped through the door and scratched at their eardrums.

"I'm alone. Open the door; I have something to show you." Frowning, he reached for the door handle, glancing over his shoulder at Akira shaking his head and whispering something about a big bad wolf. But his curiosity got the better of him and he shrugged, twisting the brass knob.

The first sight that greeted his eyes was a pair of pink glasses that looked like they were made of clear, unfocussed glass. They gave the impression that the wearer considered them an accessory, and probably thought they made her look smarter. Behind them, two brown eyes stared at him in amusement.

The second thing he saw nearly stopped his heart. Held up to his face, gripped by fingers painted to match the glasses, was a picture. He gasped loudly and grabbed the photo. When the girl didn't bother to stop him, he realised she had probably made copies.

"Like I said, Kiritani-kun. I _really_ think talking to me would be in your best interests." She giggled hysterically, and started to walk away, all the while butchering a "come-hither" gesture. Shuji could only stare at the glossy image in shock and pure unadulterated horror. Shining sadistically back at him, was an image obviously taken outside his bedroom window. He easily recognized his own figure in bed, with his arms around a slightly frightened and panicked Akira.

**O**

**O**

**O**

**To Be Continued…**

_-Dodges flying objects- I'm sorry! I know you're probably staring at the screen going "WTF WAS THAT?! I WAITED 5 MONTHS FOR THAT SHIT?! But I'm really, really, REALLY sorry! . I have been kinda busy preparing for an oncoming trip to Kyoto in July, so I have been working my ass off to raise funds so I can go. Also, as much as I hate to admit it, I am suffering from a little bit of Writers Block. Don't worry though, I'm DEFINITELY gonna finish this fic. I'm just not totally sure when it will end. I'm aiming for 5-6 chapters…MAYBE 7. Which at least means it's over half way finished. I'm trying my uber hardest to keep this fandom alive and healthy. At the moment, the amount of Shuji to Akira, or even Nobuta wo Produce fics in general have sort of been declining and it kinda depresses me. As we speak though, I am already formulating an idea for another fic, with beaucoup de Nobuta and Shuji/Akira love._


	5. Blinkered Existance

A Mystery to the Both of Them

Title: A Mystery to the Both of Them

Chapter: Blinkered Existence

Series: Nobuta wo Produce

Pairing: Kiritani to Kusano

Genre: Humour and Romance. With a dash of the dark stuff.

Rating: PG-13, soon to rise.

Dedicated to: Russell Brand, the living embodiment of a modern, hedonistic, androgynous, spiritual, beautiful man. (Seriously, look him up. You'll recognize him as the one who looks a bit like a gothic Jesus. I realize that by now, many of you might of heard of him, as he has finally started to gain notoriety in the States.)

A/N: Lets see, I am to keep this short as possible so you won't lose interest. All I can say without a doubt is that the plot to this thing has really taken a different shape from its first infant days as a cuddly little plot bunny. It's dug its razor-sharp little pad-less claws into my creative drive box with a mad gleam in its little red eyes that would have the March Hare tsking in disapproval. There are so many new twists and turns that were never in the original plot for this, that I'm having trouble remembering them all. Such is the nature of the relationship between Shuji and Akira, I suppose. Enough of my soliloquy, on with the fic!

…Crap! One more note…I promise. I notice a couple of you seem confused by the fact that, in a previous chapter, I said that Akira had an uke-face. Although I believe Yamapi himself is very masculine in appearance, I find (personally) that he looks a bit…submissive in some of his photo-shoot pictures as Akira. Seriously, Google Pi as Akira…some of those pictures just scream uke. As a last note, the lyrics in bolded italics are from Mirror by Gackt, with translation at the bottom.

Blinkered Existence

"Like I said, Kiritani-kun. I really think talking to me would be in your best interests." She giggled hysterically, and started to walk away, all the while butchering a "come-hither" gesture. Shuji could only stare at the glossy image in shock and pure unadulterated horror. Shining sadistically back at him, was an image obviously taken outside his bedroom window. He easily recognized his own figure in bed, with his arms around a slightly frightened and panicked Akira.

Akira jumped up in confusion as Shuji disappeared through the door after the girl that had just rudely interrupted their lunch. He hadn't seen whatever she had shown Shuji, but whatever it was seemed to have spooked him really badly.

"Shuji! Wait! Where are you going?" he yelled, running into the corridor, just too late to see which direction Shuji went. "Kuso!" A loud clang rang out as he kicked the door in frustration and stormed back into the classroom, closing the door behind him.

He dropped into a cross-legged position and stabbed at the obento Shuji had made him angrily with his chopsticks. Akira couldn't understand how Shuji could have been stupid enough to follow one of their crazy fans. Who knows what those people were planning to do to them? He bit his lip nervously. Suddenly he regretted not going to look for Shuji. "Why did he go with her? What did she show him that could have freaked him out like that? It had to be something really big, or he wouldn't have bothered following her…What the hell does that girl know anyway?!" he whined, jumping up and pacing up and down the room.

"Shu~u~ji-kun…what did she show you?"

* * *

"How the fuck do you know where I live, and just who the hell do you think you are?!" Shuji spat when she led him into an empty science classroom one floor down.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she laughed, "Didn't I introduce myself? So sorry. I'm Esumi Hayashiko. And of course, I know you're Kiritani Shuji-sama."

"Drop that honorific," he said coldly.

"Alright, Kiritani-san," she said, seating herself on a desk. "Now that we at least know each other's names, do you-"

"Why the hell were you at my house in the middle of the night?" he interrupted angrily. He was not in the mood for small talk; he was pissed. 'Why the hell am I always being betrayed by photos?!' he wondered irritably.

Esumi laughed her shrill, painful giggly laugh. It sounded like one crafted exclusively for hurting ears. When she regained control again, she cleared her throat and said, "Ah, of course. The reason I dragged you here in the first place. I'm sorry; your expression almost killed me. It's rare to see someone so angry and pretty at the same time. Now-"

"Is this meant to be blackmail?" Shuji spat. His temper was rising fast.

"Blackmail?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Of course it's blackmail, silly. I wouldn't have threatened your best interests for the fun of it would I? Well, I would, but this is actually blackmail."

Shuji glared at the girl. If it weren't for the fact that he had manners and knew it would make Akira want to kick his ass if he hurt a girl, he would so be killing her in the most painful, prolonged and violent way he could.

"So what the hell do you want then?!"

She smiled. "You know, that Sadako-chan is really a nice person. Nice, but very forgetful and naïve. Did you know? Kubota Yuriko-chan is my cousin. Sadako-chan seems to have forgotten that we've met before."

'So that's where I've heard that stupid laugh before. It fucking runs in the family,' he thought bitterly.

She twirled a lock of hair flirtatiously and continued. "And now that my cousin has betrayed her, her brain has gone all foggy with thoughts of vengeance. Sad, really," she chuckled.

"So what do I care who you're related to? How the hell does that explain why you were spying on me outside my window like some kind of sick stalker?! What the hell do you want?!" he yelled. She was testing his patience and he was about to snap.

"First of all, Kiritani-san," Esumi said calmly, "It's not as if you were the only one in the picture. And I wouldn't really call it spying, more…taking advantage of a great opportunity that was staring me in the face."

"As to what I can get out of this..." she continued. "Well, as nice as Sadako is, she has nothing to offer me. If I help my dear cousin, however, that's another friend in a high place for me. And I really like having powerful friends. It makes everything in life so much…easier. Pity really, Sadako-chan did such a good job by telling me about my dear sweet cousin. You see, it turns out that Yuriko likes you, quite a lot. That, Kiritani-san, is where you come in."

Shuji scowled and kicked the table leg in frustration. This girl played really dirty.

"Here is you're ultimatum Kiritani-san. Either you agree to go out with my cousin, or this picture will be splashed around the school, the town, the country, and most importantly, the internet. It will be everywhere, and everyone that sees it will wonder why it is that Kusano-sama hangs out with you after you had-"she pointed to Akira's scared face in the photo "-your unwanted hands all over him." She smiled widely when she saw his face blanche. "Either way, I don't really care what you do. It's a win-win situation for me whatever you decide. This kind of thing falls under my area of interest anyway," she said, stroking the glossy image. Her smile grew wider when she saw Shuji flinch as her fingers lingered on Akira's face. "You're both so extremely pretty, you know."

Shuji was silent for a few minutes; contemplating the situation and cursing his father's work for making them leave Tokyo. He got up and paced back and forth, trying his best to ignore the staring. He couldn't let her get away with this, but he also couldn't let the photo get out. It was too early into his stay in this city for him to screw up a reputation he hadn't even had the chance to build yet. Then of course, there was Akira. He couldn't let his best friend suffer because of a brief moment where he lost control that just happened to be caught on camera by a malicious girl.

"Fine. I'll call her tomorrow. ONE date. One. That's it. Then you have to tear up all the copies you have and leave us the hell alone. Understood?

"I think we have a deal, Kiritani-san," said Esumi, sticking her one hand out for him to shake, and the other that held the picture. He glared at the hand briefly, before snatching the photo rather than shaking that offensive hand. "Tear them all up," he called over his shoulder as he turned and walked out, leaving a pile of thick multicoloured confetti on the floor of the room.

* * *

Shuji ripped open the door of the music room, nearly giving Akira a heart attack in the process. The angry boy stared at his confused friend for a few moments, arms crossed and fingers clutching at his uniform. The whole situation was ridiculous. How the hell had she found out where he lived, anyway? She gave him the creeps too.

Shuji sat down backwards on a chair, staring out the window as Akira waved his arms in front of his friend's face, trying to get his attention. "Moshi-moshi! Shu~u~ji-kun!" When that didn't work, he pulled Shuji into a bear hug and shook him lightly to wake him up. Instantly, the boy frowned and disentangled himself from Akira's grip. "Get off me! This is exactly why I'm in this mess you idiot," he growled, getting up and running out the room again.

Akira watched the empty doorway for the second time that day. He didn't understand why his friend was so freaked out all of a sudden. It wasn't the first time he had hugged Shuji, and he hadn't always been shrugged off so coldly before, so it couldn't have been the hug. "What did I do?" he quietly asked his fox hand.

* * *

Shuji stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, much like he had when he first arrived. But unlike before, seeing his own face watching him with cold glass eyes only served to fan the flames of his anger. He closed his eyes and withdrew the dreaded photo from his uniform's jacket pocket, and opened them again. His temper quadrupled. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuckfuck FUCK!" he screamed, pounding at his reflection with his fists. "You fucking stupid idiot! Why can't you stop?! You're fucking it up! You're fucking everything up! He doesn't like you! He doesn't…"he felt his eyes start to itch and the tell-tale brief warmth of a tear rolling down his cheek as he shook with anger and misery. Leaning his head on the mirror, he watched it fog up from his breath, wondering why everything kept falling apart. Several more tears fell, and pretty soon his cheeks and eyes were going puffy and red.

Shuji growled in annoyance, and hastily rubbed at his eyes with his jacket sleeve. He couldn't cry at school. People who cried at school attracted huge groups of other people with tissues and stupid unhelpful remarks like, "Are you okay?" or his least favourite, "What's wrong?" If the people that were bawling their eyes out were okay, there would have to be something seriously wrong with their minds, or they wouldn't be crying. If they wanted everyone to know what was wrong, you wouldn't have to coax it out of them. But worst of all, crying was considered a sign of sappiness, and an inability to cope with the world in public.

He splashed some water in his face and rubbed it so that it wouldn't just be his cheeks that looked red, and then messed up his hair a bit for the full effect. That way it wouldn't look like he had been crying, but give the impression that he was tired. A voice at the back of his head sadistically reminded him that this was exactly the kind of trickery he used to use on Mariko and everyone else back in Tokyo. He ignored it.

Now, of course, there was the matter of having to date that girl's equally irritating cousin. Great, more lying. It had been so much easier to pretend he was pretending to date Mariko. She had been kind and smart and if it weren't for the fact that he wasn't attracted to her in the least, he supposed she would be the kind of girl that he would date. But there lay the problem of course; he was pretending to date a girl he wasn't really interested in.

He could also have gone out with about a hundred other girls who also had a crush on him, but he wasn't interested in them either. He understood what made them tick and what they were interested in, out of necessity, but had never really seen the point of dating for anything other than popularity. Girls did not interest him. Yuriko definitely did not interest him.

But what choice did he have? If he refused to humour that damn girl, the picture would be everywhere. He was well aware of the implications of that; the way he and Akira were positioned in the photo, anyone could look at it and automatically assume he was some kind of creepy molester pervert, and that Akira was a rape victim. He could kiss normality goodbye, nevermind popularity. How had she taken that picture anyway? The only thing Shuji could think of was that she had to have climbed up the drainpipes the way Akira had a couple days before and taken it when he had been awaking from his dream.

Just as he was wondering how best to fake his own death to get out of the date with Yuriko, the bathroom door swung open behind him, giving way to a figure with wildly flailing arms. "Found ya! ~" was the only warning he got, before Akira tackled him to the ground. Shuji cursed and hurriedly got back up again, swinging around wildly to check if there was anyone with a camera nearby. When he was sure there wasn't, he breathed a sigh of relief and gazed at Akira. The boy watched him back, tilting his head slightly with curiosity. "Kon-kon?" his fingers inquired.

When Shuji looked away in annoyance, but did not answer, Akira frowned and spoke seriously. "Shuji-kun, what's wrong? Please tell me. If you don't tell me now, Truth Man will probably come and ask you himself." Still no answer. "Shu~u~ji-kun! Please?"

Shuji shook his head and crossed his arms nervously. "Look, I can't tell you, okay? But…" he bit his lip. Akira raised an eyebrow and copied Shuji's crossed arms. "Yes? What is it?"

Shuji looked away again and fidgeted with his jacket sleeves, trying to phrase his next sentence as clearly as possible. "I'm sorry I freaked out. That girl…showed me something pretty bad. So…I'm sorry, okay!"

"Ah, sou ka? Well, Shuji I'm happy. I'm worried about you, ne? I was beginning to think you didn't like me anymore. If that happened, I don't know what I'd do," he said, serious again. Before launching himself once more at Shuji and giving him another bear hug. "Next time though, if there is something wrong, tell me okay?"

Shuji blushed slightly, before hastily returning the hug and firmly but carefully pushing Akira off. "Okay."Shuji checked for the telltale sound of a camera. Nope, and no signs of flashing that he could spot. He sighed with relief. "Come on, lets get out of here," he said as he heard the lunch bell chime.

* * *

"…And that's what you have for homework today. Please study hard for that test next Monday," their teacher finished, just as the final bell of the day was ringing. Akira grabbed his bag, followed closely by Shuji's arm, and ran for the door. Narrowly avoiding a tiny first year girl, they bolted down the hallway towards the door. They were very much aware that they were being followed closely by five girls and two boys that were some of the more persistent members of their 'fanclub.'

"Kiritani-sama!!! I LOVE YOU!" screamed one. "Kusano-sama, HAVE MY BABIES PLEASE!!!" yelled another. Shuji and Akira picked up the pace a little bit. Akira had to admit he was a little confused and shaken about the latter request. "I'm sorry!" he called over his shoulder "but I don't think either of us has the right parts for that! I'm definitely not a girl!" he called back at the boy who had been leering at him predatorily all through his last class. 'God, its getting even worse…'thought Shuji. "Come on! We're almost at the bike stand, run faster!"

They sped up as they heard extra footfalls, signalling the arrival of more fangirls. Shuji and Akira nearly crashed into their bikes, fumbling for the keys so they could get the hell out of there. "Yes! Yes!" yelled Akira as his lock finally came loose. He jumped on and rode after Shuji, who was already near the school gate. "Hurry up! Before they catch up!"

As soon as they had gotten a few blocks away, they changed directions and took an alternate route to the furniture store to be certain they weren't being followed. Shuji was especially jumpy since the shock he got that morning. "Can't be too careful. They don't know when to give up!"  
For the rest of the journey, they kept looking behind them for fans. When they finally got there, Akira breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. "Oi, Shuji? Do you think they deliver here?" Shuji locked his bike, stopping briefly to stretch. "They'd better. There's no way in hell we'd be able to take this home if they don't."

* * *

Shuji's mouth was wide open with shock. They were standing near a bed that looked like it belonged in the bedroom of a rich celebrity. Atop this colossal structure was Akira, who was currently lying down to test the mattress while a store assistant watched nervously. "Ano…"said the man, fully aware that he shouldn't let customers lie on the furniture, but equally aware that this particular one had a VERY fancy-looking credit card. In his experience, the fancier the card, the more they could get away with. He just preyed his boss didn't decide to check in on him. "Excuse me, sir…is this the bed you want, or do you want to see some of the others?" Akira rolled onto his side, but didn't say anything, as if in deep thought.

Shuji squirmed when he remembered that this was a double bed. "There'll be more than enough space for both of us…" He jumped nervously; that had not come from him, had it? No, it hadn't. At least, he hadn't said it or consciously thought it. But that wasn't to say it hadn't come from some part of him. Shuji cringed when the images of leather, and the nail-polish, and above all, the leering crawled through his mind…

"Oi! Akira!" he said, trying to block out the images. "Are you almost done?" He waited expectantly for Akira to shows signs of life again. "Oi! Wake up!" That seemed to work, as Akira's immediate reaction was to shake his head to rouse himself from his thoughts. "Hai~?"

"I said, "Are you almost done?" We still have some shopping to do, you know. You've been lying down on the same…bed…for close to ten minutes now! Haven't you made up your mind yet?"

Akira blinked for a couple seconds while Shuji waited for a reply. Then he turned to the shop assistant and said, "Ano sa, would you mind excusing us for a moment?" The assistant look quite worried for a moment, but nodded and left them alone.

Akira tapped the space next to him and smiled at Shuji. Shuji to this to mean the guy wanted him to join him. He cocked an eyebrow in curiosity, but took off his shoes and proceeded to get onto the monster-bed anyway. "What's this about, anyway?" he asked nervously. Something in Akira's eyes was making him a little nervous, something he had never seen before…or…had he?

"What the hell is the idiot doing now?" he thought, trying to avoid eye contact with his friend. "Shuji…what's your opinion?" Akira asked him. He tilted his head slightly and chewed his lip nervously. Shuji shot up into a sitting position. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his mouth dropped open in shock. Between the lip biting and the sitting on the bed thing and the disturbing thoughts, he wasn't really sure if he had heard the boy correctly. "Heh?!"

"I said, what's your opinion? Of the bed, that is?" he added. 'Okay, why is he freaking out now? I haven't done anything. It's not like I just kissed him or anything. I just asked him a question,' he thought. "Well? What do you think? Is it comfy enough? Do you think it's big enough?"

Shuji relaxed a little, but not completely. He knew he was stressing way too much, but he couldn't help it. Way too much had happened in the past few hours for him to be a calm and collected human being. His fists clenched until they turned white when he thought of that girl and her cruel smile, fingering a picture of nothing but an unfortunate mistake on his part.

He tried calming down a bit more. It wasn't working. "It's comfortable, but…big enough for what? You're one person!" Akira laughed and avoided eye contact. He was suddenly very interested in the sakura patterns on the border of the duvet. "Well, it needs to be perfect for my sweetheart!" he said. One part of him was desperately hoping that his friend would take the hint and confront him, but the other half wished he wouldn't so that there wouldn't be that nauseating awkwardness that there had been just the night before. Shuji raised a curious eyebrow. "Really? But you've not even got a girlfriend yet, much less a wife to share it with. What the hell would you do with something like this if you're just one person right now?"

Akira fidgeted horribly, really hoping Shuji didn't take notice. It was all in vain, as Shuji was now worried that if Akira fidgeted anymore, the duvet cover would tear. He wondered what had gotten his friend so nervous.

"Shu~u~ji-kun." the boy sang, trying to calm down. "I'll take this bed. It'll be good. King-size is good for King Akira!" he giggled softly while miming ruling over the furniture shop with an invisible sceptre. "Besides, you know how I sleep. I need lots of space to stretch out!" He splayed his limbs out in all directions for affect.

'Why the hell did he just mention sleep?' thought Shuji, cringing heavily. 'On second thoughts, why the hell did I agree to help him shop for a bed? At this rate, I'll never get rid of the stupid flashbacks.' He watched his friend dismount from the comfy monstrosity that was the bed to loudly call over the shop assistant, who had nervously been watching a group of spectators slowly gather around the two boys. They were obviously very curious as to what they were doing lying done on a bed in the middle of a store. "Okay, will it be the king-size Gwenevere model bed then?" said the man. He sincerely hoped that it was all Akira wanted to buy, as he didn't think all this stress was very good for his nerves.

"Hai~! How soon can you deliver it?" he asked as he dragged Shuji along to the cash register. His friend sighed heavily, but nevertheless allowed himself to be dragged. The was no stopping Akira when he had his mind set on something. He was a complete juggernaut sometimes.

"I'll be paying with credit" Akira said cheerfully, before the nervous shop assistant could ask. A look of immense relief flashed across the man's face. He did not know what he would have done if the boy had said he wanted to pay in cash. He gratefully took the shiny plastic card from its owner and rang up the price. "Here's the delivery form. Please fill in your address, name, and number, so we know how to contact you. The shipping, assembly and delivery will take a couple days, but we'll call you the day before we deliver it. Thank you, and please come again." '…Or not,' he added to himself.

Akira grabbed Shuji's arm again as he skipped out of the store. "Akira has a be~d! Akira has a be~d!" Shuji carefully pried his arm out of his friend's grip and straightened the crinkles in his jacket as much as possible. "Yes, yes you do. Now we really need to go shopping though. We spent so long in there you almost made that guy cry," he laughed. Akira giggled, running his fingers through his hair. He was glad Shuji had finally calmed down enough to start joking again.

* * *

"No, put it back," Shuji said. Akira froze, just as he was about to put five large cartons of soy milk and half a dozen boxes of strawberry cookies into the shopping trolley. "We don't need that much. You can leave two cartons and one box, that's it, okay?"

Akira beamed at Shuji and dropped the allotted goods into the trolley, before skipping off in search of something more interesting. Shuji grabbed two bottles of milk, a loaf of bread and a box of rice crispies, and looked at what was left on the messy shopping list. It was messy mostly because of Akira's decision to add stuff he felt they needed, and had drawn little hearts next to the ones he felt were most important. He couldn't help but smile.

His smile disappeared, however, as soon as he remembered the events that day. He still had to call that irritating girl for a date tomorrow. It was not something he looked forward to in the least.

Akira soon came bouncing back into view, holding a bag of oranges and several packets of sour worms. "Shuji? You okay? Shuji?" he asked nervously, noting his friend's suddenly sombre mood. The other boy didn't seem to have noticed his concern, as he was too deep in his own thoughts. In a second attempt at getting Shuji's attention, Akira dropped the oranges and candy into the trolley and wrapped his arms around Shuji's thin frame and leaned closer to his ear. "Shuuuuuuuuji~" he whispered softly.

"Mhmmm?" said Shuji. It took him all of ten seconds to realise that Akira had him in an embrace, in the middle of a supermarket, and that his arms had unconsciously been trying to hug back. He wiggled free from the embrace, instantly regretting the loss of warmth. As much as longed to properly hug Akira, he just couldn't deal with physical contact at that moment. It just made it so much harder to resist the urge to grab Akira desperately by the neck and kiss the fool as if his very life depended on it. It was as if Akira was a magnet, and by breaking free from the hug, Shuji was resisting the magnetic pull with every ounce of strength in his body. It was torture.

"Daijoubu?" Akira asked tilting his head in curiosity. Shuji straightened his jacket a little to calm his nerves a little. "I'm fine. Just tired, I guess," he lied. Akira did not believe him for a second, and watched him carefully, eyebrows knitted together tightly.

"Shuji…I know you are keeping something from me," he said seriously. It's alright to keep secrets, but it's obviously not a secret that wants to be kept. Aren't I your best friend? Why won't you tell me anything? You might unhappy, but you have no idea how unhappy you're making me by lying about being fine. I'm not blind Shuji!"

Shuji cringed at Akira's honesty. He had not expected his friend to be so offended by his actions, and he felt quite guilty for lying to the boy. Had his lies been about anything else, ANYTHING, he would probably have told him the truth. In this particular case though, he would absolutely not relent. Not when it could ruin their friendship forever. "After all," Shuji reasoned with himself, "This isn't love. It's just…lust. I can learn to ignore lust. It's not something I have to admit to him."

He ignored the little voice in his head that insisted that, no, this wasn't lust. That this was actual love, which is not as easy to ignore as a little bit of sexual frustration. But he just avoided it, like he did with all the other little voices. It would not do to listen to annoying voices, least of all ones in your head.

"This is something different, Kusano. There some things I'd prefer to--"

"Don't call me that anymore! I thought I told you to just call me Akira!" he yelled, batting Shuji on the shoulder in anger.

"A-Akira, gomen. I-I can't tell you. It's…pretty extreme. Please trust me, Akira. "Maybe I'll tell you sometime, but not now." He shifted uncomfortable under Akira's gaze, wondering if he'd drop the case. He was in luck; the boy nodded silently and walked down the food isle, pretending to look for something.

Shuji breathed a sigh of both relief and exasperation. This week was getting worse and worse by the minute. Any moments of happiness he experienced today would most likely be very fleeting.

* * *

"Itadakimasu!" Shuji's father opened the lid of the sukiyaki and grabbed some devil's tongue, cabbage, and mushrooms. Shuji had opted to help his father with dinner instead of facing Akira's accusing pouty glares all night. So the boy helped Koji with his homework while his brother avoided him in the kitchen. That was the one downside of letting Akira stay with him, Shuji thought as he dished up some carrots and naruto. You couldn't avoid him forever if he was sleeping in your room and having dinner with your family. Partly because of the constant contact, and partly because Akira was just bloody persistant.

It didn't help that Akira refused to talk to him either. He just stared at him in a hurt but curious way. He looked away guiltily and pretended to be watching his plate intently. When he looked up five minutes later, Akira's eyes were still boring into him. It was really starting to make him uncomfortable, so he got up at hurried into the kitchen with his plate.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but nearly choked a moment later when Akira followed him into the kitchen. They stared at each other for several moments. The absence of reaction from either of them was starting to drive Shuji crazy, so he broke the silence by coughing nervously. "Look, I'm really sorry I've not been talking to you, okay? I'm…not used to sharing my thoughts with other people, even if you are my best friend. And as much as I'd like to tell you everything, there are some things I'd like to keep private. Even you should be able to understand that," he added irritably.

Akira looked down, biting his lip. "Is it…is it about last night, Shuji-kun? If it is, please forgive me, I didn't mean to…it just sort of…well, you know," he finished lamely. His friend seemed to contemplate this for a moment. He thought hard about how to phrase his answer so that Akira wouldn't panic and come to the right conclusion.

"Well…part--" he began, before his brother slid into the kitchen on his socks, completely missing the tense atmosphere. "Nii-san! Hey!x3 is on TV! Hurry up! They've got Morning Musume and Arashi as the guests and they just ran out of seats for all of them, so half of the guys are sitting on the floor!" he laughed. When neither of the two boys broke out into shrieks of joy, Koji puffed up his cheeks and stomped off to the TV.

They looked at each other for a moment again, and burst out in awkward laughter. Shuji couldn't regain his serious expression, so he shook his head. "Upstairs," he mouthed. Akira nodded and followed the boy to his room while Koji and his dad rolled over with laughter in front of the television.

* * *

Akira sat on Shuji's bed, opposite from his friend. He was currently doodling orange kittens on his homework while whistling a tune from an ad. Shuji wondered vaguely where he had gotten the crayons from.

"Hey, Shu~u~ji-kun…" the boy looked up from his scribbles. "Where were you when I came back from detention yesterday?" he gazed into his friend's eyes, hoping it would not end up being another avoided question. To his luck, Shuji answered confidently and didn't seem to lie to him. "I was hanging out with some people in the cafeteria. Thought it would be good to make some new friends, ne?" he smiled nonchalantly, half-serious, half-hoping that Akira wouldn't press the matter any further. He refused to let out the truth that he was being blackmailed into going on a date with the girl that dragged him into that stupid group of conceited people in the cafeteria. He kept his face pleasant, but internally he was cringing in the realization that he still had to call Yuriko later to ask her out. He could already hear her shrill laughter, threatening to kill his ear drums and sanity…whatever was left of it. He wondered briefly why he had not just chosen to stay in Tokyo, where all the weird stuff, blackmail, and awkwardness was at least familiar and manageable, because in Tokyo he had all the help he needed to deal with it. Here, he only had his family and Akira, and half of his problems were unintentionally Akira's fault.

He was very relieved when Akira nodded and went back to drawing his kittens. "Okay. I guess you'd want to hang out with other people some time. Sometimes I forget how much you care about people. Do you miss our class in Tokyo at all, Shuji-kun?"

Shuji nodded. He did, really. Even with the large number of weird personalities, he really missed those fickle bastards. They kind of grew on you when you spent so much of your time with them.

His friend smiled and drew little hearts above his kittens. If any psychologist looked at his doodles, they would probably have been very curious as to why one of the orange kittens had a hair fountain and a whole cloud of hearts above his head, but Akira didn't seem notice.

"Meatarashii mono bakari oikaketeite, "furuki yoki jidai wa doko ni itta no!!" Sonna kuchiguse wa kimi ni nageku shikaku wa nai!"*

Shuji flinched at his choice of ringtone, flipping open his cell-phone and straining to sound calm to the person who's name had flashed across the screen. He was very much aware that Akira was in the room and had absolutely no idea about why he had been so upset earlier. "Moshi-moshi?" he managed through gritted teeth.

"Ah, Kiritani Shuji. Seems my contact was right about your number. How are you, Shuji?" she said. His jaw tightened further; he could hear the teasing in her voice. For the umpteenth time since he moved here, he wondered if he had offended a god or something.

"I'm…fine." He shut his eyes in irritation and briefly covered phone to talk to Akira. "Just a second okay, I gotta take this call in private," he explained. Akira stopped drawing to look up at his friend's face. He raised an eyebrow at the weird expression he found there. After staring at one another for several seconds, Akira finally broke the eye-contact and nodded, not saying a word.

He watched from the corner of his eyes as Shuji flashed him a quick counterfeit smile and left the room in a hurry. His heart stung at the realization that Shuji was keeping yet another thing secret from him.

Why couldn't he just be the Real Shuji that Akira had fallen in love with? Did he really need other people's approval so much that he would be willing to go back to his old deceptive ways? Just who could be calling him? Shuji never really talked to anyone at school when Akira wasn't around, which was almost always, and it definitely wasn't Nobuta or he wouldn't have left the room. He sighed and gave up on his drawings. Maybe he should do some homework instead? Nah…

Suddenly, a second cell phone melody rang out through the room. Akira cursed as he hurriedly searched for his own cell phone, before finally finding it at the bottom of his school bag. Just in time he clicked the yes button and answered "Moshi-moshi? Ah! 'Tousan? Hi…"

* * *

"What the fuck do you want now, Esumi?" he said. He now longer bothered to sound calm and casual no that Akira was out of earshot, and he definitely was not going to bother acting civil towards the girl who was blackmailing him. He heard that damned familiar shrill giggling on the other end of the phone and clenched his fist. "Aw, you're so mean Kiritani! All I want is to get a nice boyfriend for my cousin. You should be more considerate. And please, call me 'Shiko-chan', it sounds so much better."

Shuji couldn't believe his ears. How could anyone be more of a hypocrite? "Like you have any right to lecture me about consideration. You're blackmailing me into this, so where is the consideration in that?" he hissed. More laughter.

"Well, you've got a point there. But anyway…something tells me you've not yet bothered to call my poor cousin yet. Tsk tsk." Shuji massaged his temples, trying his best not yell. It would definitely look suspicious if he suddenly started yelling on the phone about how he didn't want to date that stupid girl and how he wished he could wring "Shiko-chan's" neck.

"No, I haven't. Why?" he said. Shuji could hear the familiar clicking sounds on the other end of the phone. Hayashiko hummed a little. It was making him a little nervous. "Hey, Kiritani? I really do hope you are going to call her soon. Because as we speak, I'm uploading that lovely little picture onto the internet," she sang, not bothering to mask the sadism in her voice.

Shuji could barely contain his panic. "NO!" he said in a harsh whisper. "What the hell are you doing?! I'm going to call her tonight! Why are you putting it on the internet, we had a deal!" His fingers were turning white as he clutched the cell phone. He looked around, in case anyone heard, but his family were too busy laughing at the television and from what he could tell, Akira was also on the phone.

Yet more laughter assaulted his ears as he went into the guest bedroom and closed the door carefully behind him. "Don't worry Shuji-" he cringed at the use of his first name "-it's only a photo hosting website. I haven't posted the link or uploaded it anywhere else…yet." He relaxed slightly at the words, but didn't allow himself to feel any relief. She was still a deceptive snake and there was a chance that she could break her word and post the photo somewhere else. He didn't trust her for a second. He remembered someone in class earlier mentioning to another classmate that she had a criminal record. He clenched his jaw in anger. Maybe it would be better if he just went to the police and told them he had a stalker.

"Oh, and Kiritani-kun?" she said, reminding him that she was still on the phone. "In case you were thinking about going to the police, may I remind you of the contents of that lovely photo? I'm sure the police will find it very strange that I have evidence of…well, you get the drift."

Shuji cursed under his breath. He wished a meteor would fall on her head, and preferably her computer and camera, and all the copies she had made of the photo. But he knew it would never happen; for the time being, she had the upper hand, and if he wanted to save both his and Akira's names he would have to do as she said. "Fine, I'll call her in ten minutes," he spat.

"Great! I'm glad we had this chat. Bye now!" The phone went dead at the other end. Shuji snapped his phone shut loudly and stuffed it into his pocket. His eardrums were still hurting from having to listen to that girl and he was not looking forward to calling Yuriko. But he had to. There wasn't another way out of this.

Briefly he wondered what he should tell Akira. The truth perhaps? No. At least, not the whole truth. He could probably make up something about having talked to Yuriko and ended up having a crush on her. It might work; Akira had briefly met her, but not long enough to know what she was actually like, and he had not been around when Shuji was enduring an extremely boring conversation with all those terribly boring people in the cafeteria. He had to do it, if he didn't want to make him suspicious or hurt him by not saying anything. With this excuse in mind, he headed back to his room to face Akira.

* * *

"So, why did you call me, 'tousan?" Akira asked nervously. He was never comfortable when it came to dealing with his dad, least of all when he knew that the old man wanted something. The only thing that he felt really relieved about was the fact that, with him confessing to his dad that he had come all this way for love, the man seemed to have forgotten about company matters for the moment.

"I wanted to know how your relationship with that girl is going. Well, I hope?" the man asked. Akira bit his lip nervously. He was worried that he would say that. "Ahahaha…sou ka? Hmmm…well, it's…okay. I guess…h-she doesn't know how I about her just yet, but I'm going to tell her as soon as I get the courage." His father laughed loudly on the other end. Akira wondered if it was because he found it funny or if his cowardice was really that pathetic.

"Akira…you have to be direct. If you don't hurry up and confess to the girl, someone else might." He sighed sadly, as if remembering something that still bothered him. "Trust me, I've done it too many times to count and it caused me a lot of pain and regret in the past. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Akira, you went to all the trouble of going there for her, now let her know WHY you did it," he finished.

Akira stared at the floor, unable to speak. He made it sound so damn easy. His father was right of course; if he didn't tell Shuji how he felt, absolutely nothing would have been achieved by him coming here. You didn't know if you didn't try, after all. When he finally found his tongue again, he spoke slowly and carefully. "Thanks dad. Um…I'll try my best. Hopefully I can tell...her…before it's too late."

"And? What's the lovely girl's name?" Akira thought his father sounded suspiciously curious for a moment, but dismissed it. 'Of course he's curious, he probably wants to meet 'her,'' he thought bitterly. He thought hard for a second, before blurting out the first name that came to mind. "Maki…her name is…Maki."

His father was quiet on the other end of the phone. For a moment, Akira thought he had hung up, but as he was about to press the 'End Call' button, the man spoke again. He was surprisingly calm, considering the next question he asked. "Akira…is this person you love a girl, or a boy?"

Akira nearly choked as the phone fell from his hand. 'He knows!' he thought through a veil of blind panic. 'How the hell does he know?!' He scrambled to pick the phone up again and he nearly dropped it several times. Finally, he held it in his shaky hands, and his voice was equally unsteady. "H-how did y-you…y-yes…it's a…guy," he finished lamely. He might as well admit it now that his father had guessed.

"Hmm…I thought so." Akira wondered why the hell his father sounded so calm about the whole thing. "But…how did you know? I thought you never paid any attention to me outside the whole 'taking over the family business' thing!" On the one hand, Akira was shocked that both his dad and one of his best friends had figured it out that he liked another boy. But another part of him (the brat-ish side) was just ticked off that his acting hadn't been good enough.

"Akira, I'm not as stupid as I look. Hahaha…you know, I always had this feeling. But you can never be too certain. That's why I said "she" before, you know. I kind of had a hunch, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions in case I was wrong and you freaked out. Hahaha…guess I was right," he laughed. Akira's cheeks inflated in irritation. 'Old people are way too smart for their own good,' he thought. His father took a deep breathe and continued.

"There was something else too. I thought it was kind of strange that the day you took the helicopter without my permission-" he paused, clearly still annoyed his son had done something so reckless, "-an employee here by the name of Kiritani transferred to the Hokkaido branch. I found it funny that name sounded so familiar, until I remembered something. Your friend's family name is Kiritani, isn't it?" he finished, sounding particularly smug about the fact that he had figured his son's secret out so easily.

Akira gave in- his dad was a pretty cunning bastard. "Okay, fine. You win. It's Shuji! His name is Shuji. Shuji is the person I've been chasing after, okay? Why don't you sound more worried, by the way? Doesn't this kind of ruin the whole '"I want to have LOTS of grandchildren! Go out and make babies if you're not going to succeed me at least!"' thing?" he said biting his lower lip again. He father had seemed really enthusiastic about the idea of a whole pack of small children to spoil and dote on. He was surprised to hear more laughing on the other end. "Are you kidding? I don't care what gender the person you love is, as long as you're happy. And as for babies? Ha! It's the two thousands! If you can't figure out how to have at least one kid with modern science or a nice lady to help you have a baby, or at the very least adopt a kid, then I really have failed you."

Akira smiled his relief. He was now sitting cross-legged on the floor, kon-konning at the phone. He suddenly felt a new-found respect for his dad. Maybe the old man wasn't such a cold fish after all. "Thanks, 'tousan. But…now you see why me telling him is a problem. I love him, but I've never done this before. I really care about him a lot and I don't want him to die of shock. I care about our friendship too much for it to go away because of how I fe-" He was about to finish his sentence, before Shuji came through the door with a grim look on his face. 'Shit, how much did here hear?!' he thought in horror.

* * *

Shuji breathed deeply and tried to keep his face as neutral as possible. 'I can do this,' he thought. 'I just need to convince him I like Yuriko. I have to pull this off!' With this in mind, he dragged himself slowly towards his room. He heard Akira's voice talking to someone quietly and seriously. He only caught every few words of what the boy was saying, but from the little he heard he could tell it must have been important.

"…I've never done this before…care about…a lot…die of shock…care about our friendship too much …because of how I fe-" Shuji opened the door of his room to see Akira sitting cross-legged on the floor and talking on the phone. As soon as the boy saw him, his eyes flew open in fear and Shuji instantly wished he knew what the conversation was about. He frowned; why would Akira look so scared of him?

"I'll talk to you later, 'tousan." Akira switched off the phone and gulped as he searched Shuji's faces for tell-tale signs that he had heard anything he shouldn't have. When he found only confusion he relaxed a little and smiled. "That was my father. He says hi," he said. Shuji raised an eyebrow, but didn't question the boy as he nodded and sat down on the bed, preparing to tell his friend of his plans to date Yuriko. He reconsidered it for a second, opting instead to leave the room and call the girl first.

It didn't take very long. Of course she said yes. After all, some very dedicated stalkers had informed him of how she felt. He arranged to meet her an hour after at the front doors. It was to be a dinner date, with shopping. His temples ached as her screechy voice reverberated in his ears. When he finally hung up, he was hoping to get hit by lightening, preferably hard enough to knock him into a nice coma for a few months. He trudged back to the room, aware that Akira's eyes followed him to the bed as he lay down and plucked up the courage to execute the biggest lie in history.

Akira continued to watch Shuji, in case he intended to press the matter. He didn't know if he could deal with it if Shuji forced him to confess on the spot. "I have to tell you something, Akira," he said, lying down and putting on his best mask- his last resort. It had been forged specially for Akira only a few minutes before, a perfect compound of his true personality, and the kind of person he would be if he allowed himself to act on those annoying stomach butterflies that he only really ever felt around one person. He had rehearsed some lines beforehand, so it sounded more realistic, and tried to remember what Akira sounded like when the boy had confessed to him about how he felt about Nobuta.

"I'm…I'm…in love," he said, blushing at the appropriate moment. He ignored Akira's eyes so the boy couldn't tell if he was lying. "This sounds really stupid coming from me, but I really love this person. I think about them all the time and it's killing me because I don't know how they feel." Akira's eyes went wide again for the second time in five minutes. His mind went blank and all he could do was listen to what his friend was saying as the world seemed to go into slow motion. "Erg! I sound all mushy! Hahahaha! But, it's true. I guess I'll just have to find out tomorrow… "

Akira sat motionless, mouth still hanging open. He remembered after about two minutes that he had vocal chords that worked. "W-why? What h-happens tomorrow?" he said, failing miserably at keeping his voice even.

"Because I'm taking her on a date tomorrow after school…Yuriko-chan agreed to it just now!" he said, and flashed Akira a smile tore out his soul and stepped all over his heart. Akira half-smiled and stood up, trying to prevent himself from going to pieces in front of Shuji. "Ah, sou desu ka? That's great, mi amigo! Argh…I'll be back in a moment, I need to pee."

As he ran to the bathroom, ignoring the look of bitter relief on Shuji's face, he didn't bother to stop the warm tears from falling. His heart had just shattered into a million tiny fragments, and all he could do was blame himself. "Akira! Baka! What did you expect?! He's straight for gods' sakes! He likes girls, and you're not a girl! Did you really think he was talking about you? He only sees you as his annoying best friend, and that's all. It doesn't matter how you feel, he'll never love you back, and that's the only thing that matters!" he thought to himself as he shut the bathroom door and locked it behind him. As he slid onto the floor, he felt like every part of him was dying, and he embraced it as long as he didn't have to feel so stupid for believing…

Back in his room, Shuji stared at the spot where Akira had been moments before. "This is good," he thought. "He believed me. I don't have to worry about him finding out about the Yuriko thing anymore…I just have to keep it up tomorrow until I go pick her up for dinner, and I'll be fine." As he waited for his friend to return, he wondered why he suddenly felt like human garbage.

O

O

O

To Be Continued…

Wow. That turned out a bit longer than I thought it would be. I apologize if it seems a bit drawn out; the damn thing just didn't feel right when I tried making it smaller. I know there are probably not a lot of you still reading this due to my late updates, but I would like to thank the people that still are. Many months were spent toiling over this and I wish I had had more time in the summer to work on it. But alas, my time was swallowed up by my trips to Japan and South Africa. The first of these trips was used for some inspiration. Many thanks, and please comment if you want quicker updates; they weigh on my conscience when I'm being lazy and make me write faster. Ja ne!

* You only chase after novelties, "Where did those good old days go!!" You have no right to lament things like that


	6. Date with the Devil

**A Mystery to the Both of Them**

**Title:** A Mystery to the Both of Them

**Chapter: **Date with the Devil

**Series: **Nobuta wo Produce

**Pairing: **Shuji to Akira. (Shujira? XD Nah…sounds like a Yakuza name…although it kinda works with the Seishun Amigo thing…)

**Genre:** Humour and Romance. With a dash of the dark stuff. Maybe a little more than a dash.

**Rating: **PG-13, soon to rise.

**Dedicated to:** All of you who are still reading my stuff x.x Oh, and the new Gackt/You-kun couple, congrats boys, you look great together. You! Look after your rock-star, okay? :3 (Sorry Hyde, but you _are_ married…he wasn't' going to wait forever.)

**Warning:** uke!Akira, seme!Shuji (I know many of you prefer it the other way round because of what Yamapi and Kame are like in real life, but I see it the other way round with Shuji to Akira.)

**A/N: **There are either two chapters or one more chapter after this one, depending on how things go. Thank you so much to those of you who have been so (reluctantly) patient with me so far. I know it's been over a year, and its still not finished, so I hope you won't be disappointed by the ending. Minna! Arigato ne! Honto ni, domo arigato gozaimasu! (Also, I said this before, but you all need to watch the Shuji/Akira fanvid "All the things he said" on YouTube. It's amazing!)

(P.S. If you don't remember, "mamechichi" was a misreading of tonyu.)

_**Date with the Devil**_

_As he ran to the bathroom, ignoring the look of bitter relief on Shuji's face, he didn't bother to stop the warm tears from falling. His heart had just shattered into a million tiny fragments, and all he could do was blame himself. "Akira! Baka! What did you expect?! He's straight for gods' sakes! He likes girls, and you're not a girl! Did you really think he was talking about you? He only sees you as his annoying best friend, and that's __**all**__. It doesn't matter how you feel, he'll never love you back, and that's the only thing that matters!" he thought to himself as he shut the bathroom door and locked it behind him. As he slid onto the floor, he felt like every part of him was dying, and he embraced it as long as he didn't have to feel so stupid for believing…_

_Back in his room, Shuji stared at the spot where Akira had been moments before. "This is good," he thought. "He believed me. I don't have to worry about him finding out about the Yuriko thing anymore…I just have to keep it up tomorrow until I go pick her up for dinner, and I'll be fine." As he waited for his friend to return, he wondered why he suddenly felt like human garbage._

That night, they slept in separate rooms. Akira had said something about Shuji having been right all along about the matter, and that he didn't want to eavesdrop if the boy started talking in his sleep. He had pulled his futon into the room next door, taken a shower, and gone to bed early.

That had been the first of many causes of alarm for Shuji that night. Akira rarely ever separated himself from Shuji, because that would usually mean he was upset about something. The last time he had willingly separated himself from Shuji like this was when he was chasing after Nobuta like a puppy.

Another thing that caught his attention was the fact that Akira refused to look him in the eyes, and had not smiled at him or laughed once since he had come back from the bathroom. It was gnawing at him. 

"Why won't he look at me?" Shuji wondered. "Is it because he didn't believe me and it made him angry? I thought he fell for it…maybe that stupid performance didn't convince him?" He frowned; if that was the case, Akira would probably have confronted him about it. He had been doing it that whole day, why stop? Could it be that Akira was so tired of not being told the truth that he didn't even want to be in the same room as Shuji anymore?" Shuji didn't know what to think anymore. He had not had a single uncomplicated thought since he convinced Akira to stay with him. It was giving him a headache.

Later, Shuji was lying in bed wide awake. There were several things keeping him awake. His reluctance to see that same terrible dream again, his worries about the date with Yuriko the next day, Akira's strange behaviour, and the picture that was ruining his life were only a few. But as he was finally starting to fall asleep, he was dragged back to reality by the sound of someone sniffling and crying somewhere nearby.

"That's weird…who could it be? Is it Koji?" he wondered. He got up and put on a pair of slippers, trying not to make too much noise as he opened his bedroom door and listened for the direction of the sounds. It did not take him long; they were not coming from Koji's room, but the spare bedroom, where Akira was sleeping that night.

Akira tried to control himself, to no avail. The sobs would not stop, no matter how many times he told himself that he was just being stupid about the whole thing and that he would get over it. It didn't help in the least because he knew that it was a lie; he had felt so much love for Shuji for too long for it all suddenly to fade away into a simple, comfortable friendship.

The conversation he had with his father only a few hours ago had only helped strengthen his hope that he would somehow win Shuji's heart and be happy with him as more than friends. But it had all been stripped away mere minutes later when Shuji had spoken so lovingly about that girl. Akira couldn't understand what he saw in her. She had seemed so crass and plain and fake when he met her, it made his head and heart hurt just thinking about her taking away his wonderful Shuji-kun.

"Damn it, I'll never be good enough for him! I'm not a girl, I'm not good-looking enough for him…I'm not even popular enough with people. I have nothing to offer him…I'm just a dime on the street, after all…" he thought miserably. Akira covered him face with his hands, unable to calm down as the tears came and came and did not stop. He trembled and shivered as the sobs continued, despite the thick duvet around him and the warm pyjamas he was wearing.

"Why? Why can't it be me? Why can't someone choose _me_ for once?" he wondered. "Is it so selfish of me to want love back?" He pulled his head under the covers, desperately trying to stifle the sobs that continued to rack his body, as Shuji opened the door a crack to see what was wrong with his friend.

"What's wrong with Akira?" Shuji thought anxiously as he peeked through the doorway. It sounded as if something was seriously not right with him, if the whimpers and barely-concealed sobs coming from curled up figure were any indication.

Shuji watched Akira for ten minutes before the boy finally seemed to calm down a little. He wondered if he should go in and confront him about it, but he decided against it. Obviously, this was part of the reason his friend had chosen to be sleep alone, so he probably didn't want to talk to anyone at that moment. So as much as he wanted to do something, Shuji held back and watched.

His eyes crinkled with worry. Akira was not in the habit of crying. At most, he would be expressionless and dangerously silent. Shuji had never once see the boy cry in front of him, so it was strange and not the least bit comfortable for Shuji to spy on him in a private moment like this. Feeling a little guilty, he closed the door carefully and backed away slowly, before heading back to bed.

That night, he did not have the usual strange dream that he dreaded everyday. Instead, his head was filled with images of Akira collapsing on the floor, and shattering into millions of tiny shards, like a fragmented mirror. He was there too; running to Akira's side in slow motion. In the new dream, faceless girls laughed and pointed at him cruelly and took pictures as he tried desperately to piece his friend together again. His eyes hurt as he tried to find all the tiny little shards and his fingers bled as he touched their sharp edges.

He woke up several times from that dream, and each time he went back to sleep, it came back again, fully intent on torturing him. Shuji wished he could just have seen the other dream instead. He could have handled a beautiful delusional fantasy so much better than _this_.

______________________________________________________________________________

The next morning Shuji woke Akira up for breakfast. He watched his friend get up sluggishly and stumble out of the guest bedroom in the direction of the bathroom, without saying a word. 'Obviously he hasn't slept much,' Shuji noted. Not that he himself had had the most comfortable night either, what with the freaky dreams and all.

He yawned loudly and went back to his room to change into his uniform. As soon as he came down the stairs for breakfast, he found Akira already there, dressed and washed up and stabbing at a bowl of cereal with his chopsticks. Shuji wondered if he realised that it was meant to be eaten with a spoon, but didn't question it. Instead, he poured his own cereal and watched the boy out of the corner of his eye.

Akira's eyes were puffy and red, and they had a distant look in them that unnerved Shuji almost as much as knowing why Akira's eyes were so swollen. There was still no smile from the boy since yesterday, and Shuji could feel an invisible wall between them. He wished he knew what the hell was causing it. It was all starting to freak him out and he had the horrible feeling that if it didn't get fixed soon, their friendship would never be the same again.

Akira looked up at him momentarily, studying his friends face closely. How the hell was he going to face Shuji for rest of the week when he could barely find the strength to get up and eat food? He looked back down at his food and continued to stab his breakfast with chopsticks. After about five minutes he realised that Shuji was still staring at him, and that his cereal now resembled a soggy, pulpy battleground of sugar and milk. He hadn't eaten any of it.

Shuji raised an eyebrow at the mess, but still said nothing. As worried as he was, if Akira wanted to keep it to himself, whatever it was, then Shuji wouldn't bother him about it. Although the guy often bothered him about stuff, he could understand the need for personal space once in a while. Looking down at his watch, he let out a groan at the time. They had to leave in the next three minutes if they had any hope of getting to school on time. "Come on, hurry up. We need to leave soon," he said, finally ended the extended period of silence between them.

Akira cringed slightly, but nodded. He grabbed his jacket from the chair and hurried up stairs, right past a frantically rushing Koji. "Ohayo," was all he said to the boy before disappearing into the spare room. "Hey, Akira-kun!" said the boy. He didn't seem to notice the older boy's strange behaviour, but it may have been because he was looked half asleep and was still wearing pyjama bottoms.

Shuji cleared away their bowls and went up to his room to grab his bag. He noticed Akira had left his homework (complete with orange kittens) on the floor, along with cell phone. He frowned as he remembered the peculiar snatches of the phone conversation he had caught the previous evening. 'What was he talking about to his dad? It sounded pretty serious…maybe that's why he's so upset,' he pondered to himself. 'Maybe it was another fight…but it didn't sound like he was angry or annoyed. Which is weird, because they don't usually get along. Weird…'

"Shuji." Akira was standing in the doorway. Shuji looked up at the boy and handed him his cell phone. The taller boy thanked him quietly and motioned for them to leave. He turned to go but was stopped by Shuji's hand on his arm and the look in his eyes. 'Enough! I can't take this anymore!' Shuji decided.

The boy was finally tired of seeing him look like that. "A-Akira. Is there something wrong?" Shuji asked, fully aware of the answer.

Akira looked him in the eyes for several seconds, but quickly looked away when he couldn't stand it anymore. "I…you…" he mumbled and tried again. "It's nothing you should worry about. It's not important, so don't worry," he tried to sound as sincere as possible, but his heart wasn't in it.

Shuji didn't believe him for a second. 'Not important?! You were crying! And _I'm_ the one keeping secrets from _you_?! You hypocrite!' he thought angrily.

"Oi! Why are you being so-"

"Hey you guys! Hurry up! You're gonna be late!" called Shuji's dad. The conversation was effectively ended as they broke eye-contact and hurried downstairs. Shuji made a mental note to chide Akira for his hypocrisy later.

Luckily for the two boys, they arrived late at school that morning. Usually, it would be bad, but it seemed that all the people that usually waited to ambush them coming into school were already in class, so they didn't have to deal with a crowd of overly-touchy fans. But even this didn't make either Shuji or Akira feel any happier about the day ahead.

For most of the day, Akira was silent and depressed. He barely bothered answering Shuji when he spoke, and his replies were frustrating his friend to no end.

"_Why are you being so morbid? You never answered me properly this morning -Shuji_."

When Shuji placed the note on his desk, Akira glanced at it for a moment and scribbled a brief answer, before handing it back. Shuji scowled at the words, and didn't bother to send another note.

"_YES I DID, SHUJI. I SAID IT'S NOT IMPORTANT. AND IT'S NOT. PLEASE DON'T ASK ME ANYMORE, DACCHA~! JUST FOCUS ON YOU DATE PLEASE, YOU MUST HAVE FUN TODAY. - AKIRA"_

He frowned at Akira, who pecked his fingers with his lips. "Kon." The fox puppet shook its head at Shuji, before it receded and once again became Akira's fingers. Shuji looked away in anger. He knew it was his own fault for lying to Akira again. Now the boy thought he actually cared for Yuriko and wanted to ditch his company for her. 'Idiot…I'm doing this for you!' he thought, clenching the fist that held the note.

Neither boy said another word to the other for the rest of the class.

______________________________________________________________________________

As soon as the lunch bell rang, Shuji turned to his friend. But Akira ignored him again and headed for the door. "Oi! Where are you going! Aren't you eating lunch with me?" he asked, suddenly panicking. Was the boy planning on pretending he didn't exist? His heart clenched painfully at thought. Not Akira, surely not him. Not after Shuji had sacrificed his pride and happiness so that their friendship wouldn't be ruined by a bad combination of lust and blackmail.

"I'm not that hungry, Shuji. I don't feel like sitting around doing nothing, you know. And Yamazaki-kun said he'd like to hang out with me and I'm always around you so…you don't mind if I spend lunch with him and his brother, do you? Shuji should probably hang out with his girlfriend too," he said simply.

Countless overwhelming emotions assaulted Shuji at once. Among them, betrayal, anger, fear, and jealousy were the worst. They always had lunch together, because it's what they did. Why the hell would Akira spend his time with those guys who obviously just wanted to be friends with him because the girls thought he was cool and he had a helicopter? They had not known the boy for over two years. They had not been there when the decision was made to produce Nobuta. They had not been constantly leaned on, touched and giggled at by the tall boy. So why?

'But then again, why shouldn't he?' Shuji realised bitterly. 'It's not as if he's not allowed to or anything. It's not like he's my-" he cringed at the word "-boyfriend, or something like that. He can hang around with whomever he pleases. But…I don't like this. It's stupid, but I don't want him to hang out with other people…' He knew he was being a jealous bastard, but he didn't care. He had grown so comfortable with having Akira around constantly and now another thing was interfering.

When he snapped out of his bleak thoughts, Shuji found that Akira was no longer there or anywhere in sight. The guy had most likely left ages ago. He swore under his breath and headed down the corridor with his hands firmly clenched in his pockets. "I guess this means that I should go talk to that stupid Yuriko girl then." He headed for the cafeteria where he had met her friends the other day, hating every single second that brought him closer to her.

______________________________________________________________________________

Ami watched as Akira walked despondently through the hallway. She smiled at his expression; evidently he was not eating lunch with that boy today, and he wasn't looking to happy about it. With any luck, they had had a fight, or if their hunches had been correct, broken up.

She followed him silently, trying to avoid his gaze. But she needed have bothered, because he was so distracted that he barely registered the existence of the people around him. For a moment, Ami wondered why none of his usual fans were following him today, but put it down to luck. Who cares where they were? She was finally going to get what she wanted: A brand new toy to play with.

'I'll just follow him for a bit longer to see where he's going,' she thought as she shadowed him down the stairs to the cafeteria.

'Hmmm…where are those guys?' Akira wondered as he scanned the cafeteria for the Watari twins. 'Damn it…I had to come up with an excuse or he would have come after me. Why the hell does Shuji only start paying attention to me when I don't want him to? Where are those guys? I might need to start hanging out with them if Shuji plans to ditch our lunches for his new…girlfriend…' he swallowed hard, and tried his best to ignore the stinging sensation in his heart.

'I have to stop thinking about it! I need to give him up for now. He loves someone else, but he's still my best friend. Shuji-kun won't forget about me…I hope. Maybe he'll see what she's like on the date later and decide it's not worth it?' he thought hopefully. "Maybe she won't like—no, no. That's not possible. Everyone loves Shuji." He shook his head. The only way they wouldn't end up together was if Shuji changed his mind.

He looked around again and finally spotted two identical boys arguing. Akira sighed and walked towards their table, which was thankfully mostly empty. No sooner had he taken four steps closer, than they had noticed him and rushed to his side. "Kusano-sama!" they yelled at the same time, grabbing an arm each and pulling him to their table. Akira allowed them to sit him down.

They argued briefly over who got to sit next to him, before they remembered that they could both sit on either side of him, and did so. Akira was silent for a moment. He kind of wished they would go back to arguing again. Partially because they were amusing to watch and partially because he didn't really feel like talking to them. He looked down at his fox-hand for sympathy, but received none. 'You're no fun,' he thought irritably.

The twins noticed Akira staring at his hand with a weird look on his face, but dismissed as a side-affect of having too much money. One of the two identical-looking boys smiled at him and winked, catching Akira off guard. He put it down as an over-ambitious attempt at being friendly. The other guy glared at his brother and said, "So, Kusano-sama. How are you? You've finally come to hang out with me, that's great!"

Akira nodded, but said nothing. The twins watched him, eagerly anticipating his next words. They were disappointed when he still stayed silent. Instead, the twin Akira privately thought of as 'Smile-Wink-Smile-boy' asked the question they had both been thinking about. "It's kinda strange seeing you without Kiritani-kun. Where is he? You guys didn't fight, did you?" said Umi.

The tall boy blinked a little. He didn't expect them to question him about Shuji. 'But I guess it's not so strange, after all, we are always together, and I haven't hung out with them because I wanted to eat lunch with Shuji-kun everyday…' He twirled his forelock nervously for a moment.

"Um, well…we're not really fighting but…he's having lunch with a girl today and taking her out on a date later, daccha," he finished uncomfortably. He really didn't feel like sharing personal information with these guys, especially when it had something with his feelings for Shuji or about who his friend was dating.

The boy known as Yamazaki laughed and patted Akira on the back in understanding. "Oh, I get it. Doesn't want you there being a third wheel? Makes sense I guess. Don't worry! You can hang out with me whenever Kusano-sama." This time, it was the other twin's turn to glare at his brother. Umi reached his leg around Akira's and stepped on his twin's foot, causing the boy to yelp in pain.

Umi smiled at Akira again. "Don't mind him, he does that sometimes. But really, if you ever need someone to kill time with you during a lonely lunch break, you know where to find me, kay?" He winked for good measure. "In fact, do you feel like coming shopping with me downtown today? I could use someone's opinion on what looks good on me."

Another wink. Akira was starting to wonder if the boy had something in his eye, what with all the constant eye-lash batting. He thought about the boys offer though, and decided that yes, he would like something to distract him that afternoon. He had the feeling that he would otherwise be sitting on the couch at Shuji's house, ignoring Koji's questions as to why he was crying and drinking so much soy milk at once. Shuji's decision was not something he wanted to remember or think about just yet.

"Okay, I'll do it. I'll go shopping with you," he said quickly. He smiled at Umi without much enthusiasm, but the brunette boy laughed happily and stuck his tongue out at his scowling brother. 'I won!' he thought triumphantly. Yamazaki winced but didn't give up just yet. "Oi! I don't think that's such a good idea, you know. To be wondering around downtown with this guy?" he scoffed and poked the other boy hard in the chest. "Nope, he'd probably get you both lost or try something weird. I should probably go with to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Oi! I'm not some kind of pervert! You're the one who likes Dating Sims!" Umi shot back. "Why do you have to come? It's rude to intrude like that! Kusano-sama might not want you there!" he said, looking at Akira hopefully. But he just shrugged. He didn't care who came with, as long as he was thoroughly distracted from any thoughts of Shuji. "It's fine with me."

Now it was Yamazaki's turn to cheer with joy internally. "Yes! Okay! We'll meet you after school then! Oh, if you want, we should go to karaoke! There's this ne- ah! Kishimoto-chan! I didn't see you there," he said, trying to calm his heart down. She had appeared from nowhere in front of their table. Ami had been listening intently to their entire conversation and decided it was time to intervene.

"Hm, hello Yamazaki. Umi. Kusano-sama, how are you?" she said through a veil of false sincerity. "I was just passing and I couldn't help but hear that you guys were going downtown later." Yamazaki was still staring at her although Akira and Umi weren't at all affected by the girl. Y-yeah we are. And maybe karaoke too. Would you…would you like to come too?" he stuttered, completely ignoring his twin's eye-rolls.

"Oh! Really? I'd love to! It's a good thing I've got nothing to do today. I would simply love to see what kind of clothing Kusano-sama likes to wear outside of school!" she winked her long false eyelashes and one of his eyes twitched subconsciously.

Yamazaki beamed a bright happy smile at her, completely ignoring the fact that her interests were obviously on someone else. "Okay! Just meet us outside after school with Kusano-sama then."

"I will. Good to see you're making other friends, Kusano-sama," she said as she waved goodbye and left the cafeteria with a pleased look on her face. Akira ignored her and went back into brooding mode while the twins started arguing again.

"Seriously, what do you see in her? She's a gold digger you moron!" said Umi with a slightly-too-hard punch at his twins shoulder. Yamazaki rubbed his arm in annoyance but shot back with "Well, you're just jealous someone that popular talked to me! She completely ignored _you_!"

"Hello! We have Kusano-sama as a friend! Why would I care about that money-waster? Kusano-sama is so much cooler and more popular, isn't that right Kusano-sama?" he said, looking expectantly at the boy.

Akira winced at the constant honorific; he wasn't used to people knowing he was rich and even less comfortable with being treated like a rich-guy's son. "Ano…could you maybe not call me 'Kusano-sama' please? That's what people call my dad. It makes me feel old. Please call me 'Akira.' I don't want to feel like an old man."

Umi mouthed the name for a moment, testing it on his tongue. When he found it to his liking, he smiled brightly. "Sure…Akira-kun. If that's what you want. You're too young and cute to be feeling old, so I'll stop. And so will this idiot." He punched his brother less-than-playfully in the arm again, earning him a growl and a sharp look. "Ouch! I'd prefer it if you stopped doing that before I have to kick your ass in front of half the school again, you bastard!"

Akira was saved from having to break up a fraternal pissing contest by the sound of the bell. He sighed in relief. Finally he could break away from these guys and spend the next class trying to psychically convince Shuji to go out with him instead. As he was walking away, Umi stopped him, waving a small piece of paper. As soon as he was sure his brother was out of ear-shot, he slipped it into Akira's jacket pocket. "Here, it's my cell phone number. In case you need it for anything. I'll always pick up, anytime of day, so feel free to use it," he said. Umi smiled warmly and winked at Akira and the boy wondered briefly if this really was just about getting a rich new friend.

As miserable as he felt about everything that had happened in the last few days, he couldn't help but smile. The twins seemed quite nice, even if the weren't nice to each other most of the time. Yamazaki was funny and Umi sounded like he would be great to just talk to. But he was now really starting to wonder about the constant winking. Maybe it was a nervous twitch or something…

"Arigato! I'll see you later, Umi-kun."

"See you, Akira-kun!" he said in English.

'Hmmm. Maybe that lunch was completely awful…and at least Shuji's having fun, wherever he is," thought Akira.

______________________________________________________________________________

'That was a complete waste of time!' Shuji fumed as he walked to class from where he had run into Yuriko and all her friends. For almost an entire hour, he had been forced to listen to incessant babbling and gossip to the point where he wanted to scrub and cleanse his ears until they stopped feeling so dirty. So many things he did not want to know had forced their way into his ears and making it difficult for him to pretend to want to listen. Although Yuriko had barely talked _to_ him, the looks she kept throwing in his direction and the fact that she would not stop talking _about_ him were more than enough to cause some significant ear pain.

But because of what he was blackmailed into doing, he kept his old Perfect Shuji mask in place the whole time, not daring to slip up once. He laughed at all their crappy jokes and nodded when they wouldn't shut up about fashion brands and labels.

'No wander I get along so well with Akira,' Shuji thought in annoyance. 'He doesn't even think about those kinds of things at all.' He shook his head sadly as he entered the classroom. 'Why is he so upset right now? It's killing me! I have to know why he's so unhappy!' He looked up and was surprised, but pleased to see Akira walking into the class to his seat.

Unable to contain himself, Shuji turned to him seriously and looked the boy in the eyes. "Oi, why won't you tell me what is wrong? Is it something to do with your dad? Is he trying to get you to take over again? Is someone threatening you or something? Or is it me? Did I do something to make you act like this?"

Akira didn't bother deny it this time. He just glanced briefly at his friend's face before looking away again and said, "Yes. Yes there is something wrong. No, it's not my father. For once, he is being nice to me. No, it's not someone else. Yes, it's something you did. But it's not important, so don't worry," he said for the second time that day.

"Baka! Do you realise how much of a hypocrite you're being right now?! You lecture me on how I shouldn't keep secrets from friends and then the next thing I know, you won't tell me why the hell you're upset!" said Shuji, visibly shaking from all the anger he was trying to suppress.

Akira narrowed his eyes and stared at a spot on Shuji's desk, trying not to let his voice begin to strain and his eyes start to tear-up. His lip trembled slightly as he tried to speak properly. "Well, this is completely different from whatever you keep from me. I said it before Shuji, it's not important. Even though it has something to do with you, don't worry about it. It's not something you can make up for anyway, because it's not like you did anything _wrong_."

At that moment, Shuji almost lost it. He grabbed Akira by the arm and dragged him out of the classroom and through the hallway towards the bathroom. As soon as he was sure they were alone, he crossed his arms and glared. "How can I not have done something wrong if you can't even look me in the eyes, huh?! What the fuck did I do that suddenly cancels out everything you said yesterday?! Is it because I lied to you before, is that is? Is it something I said to you last night?"

He continued to stare at the boy in front of him, waiting for an answer that could be dealt with so things could go back to normal. When Akira didn't say anything for two minutes he got angry again. "Speak damn it! Come on! This can't go on like this; I refuse to keep talking in circles! You are not fine, you idiot! I can see it right now, just as clearly as last night when you were crying!" he screamed.

Akira's eyes shot open in fear. Had Shuji heard anything he shouldn't have? No, he couldn't have. Otherwise he would be freaked out, as opposed to his current state of rage. But regardless, he had never intended for Shuji to see him like that. Not when he was the reason Akira was crying.

"Well, why can't you figure it out then, if it bothers you so much?!" he yelled as his heart pounded loudly in his chest. "Why is Nobuta the only one who can ever figure these things out?! Kami-sama!" He closed his eyes and swallowed nervously before continuing. "Shuji…please don't hate me, but…I think we should leave each other alone for a while. I'm gonna go out today with some friends while you go out with…that g-girl. Akira will move out soon, ne? Akira has stayed to long."

Shuji watched him with arms still folded. "You keep dodging the damn question. But I can see I'm not gonna get any answer from you. You wanna move out? Fine by me. You're starting to overstay your welcome anyway. Have fun with your new friends; maybe they'll understand what the hell is wrong with you, because I sure as hell don't" he said, regretting every single word as soon as it left his mouth. But he didn't take back any of it. He simply left the bathroom, feeling a sick combination of undefined guilt and betrayal. He knew he had gone too far, but Akira was also to blame.

Akira barely registered that his friend left the room. He was too busy trying to fight of the blinding white pain from the place in his heart where Shuji's words had stabbed him. He felt the moisture in his eyes as he fell to his knees in defeat. Soon he was in as bad a state as the night before, and he had to bite his tongue to stop from screaming his lungs out in misery. 'Why the hell did I have to choose him?! Why couldn't it have been someone like Nobuta? Then I wouldn't have to worry about having to keep it a secret! No, I had to choose the most unobservant person in the world!' he punched a nearby door and cried out when it splintered under his fist and stabbed his fingers painfully.

He winced as he rinsed them under a tap. How the hell could his day get any better? He was further than ever before from Shuji, and his friend really hated him now. That, and he still had to face three other people that after school, before facing Shuji at home. He exited the bathroom with his hand wrapped in some toilet paper and headed for his classroom. Needless to say, he did not dare to talk to Shuji again that day.

______________________________________________________________________________

Shuji left the class immediately as soon as the bell rang, not so much as glancing at Akira. It wouldn't do him any good now to see that sad face. But that didn't mean he didn't feel like crap.

Not only had he told Akira he wasn't welcome anymore, but he had also insulted the boy when he had only asked to be left alone. Akira had hurt him too though; the boy had directly told him he was to blame for his sombre mood and refused to explain. Then Akira announced he no longer wanted to see him for a while and was moving out.

Shuji didn't want him to leave. Far from it; he wished Akira would never leave his sight. He wanted to keep the boy within reach at all times. He didn't want to see Akira enter depression. He wanted to cheer him up like he did for Shuji. Kiss those fantastic-looking lips and hear those noises from his dreams in real life…but he couldn't.

Because Akira was his best friend and he knew the guy didn't feel the same way. That was impossible Akira had come all the way here for him because he was his _friend_ and he could not risk that friendship and drive him back to Tokyo again. He couldn't face that. So he would go on a date with a girl he did not like and he would not complain. If he did, that horrible Esumi would end their friendship and thereby kill Shuji.

"Ah! Yuriko-chan! There you are, pretty girl. Have you been waiting for me?" he asked sweetly when he reached the school gates. Yuriko squealed in ear-shattering delight and hooked her arm around Shuji's. "Shuji-kun, you're so nice! This is gonna be so fantastic! Shopping and karaoke, right? I can't wait!"

'I have you now, Kiritani. Ami can have Kusano, but you're all mine. You're mine, and I'll make sure you never think about that disgusting boy ever again,' she thought as she dragged the boy towards the bikes and, she was sure, her life.

______________________________________________________________________________

"Kusano-sama! I'm over here!" Ami called loudly. Akira tried to put on a brave face as he headed towards the overly made-up girl. He was nowhere near as good at it as good Shuji was, but Ami didn't seem to notice that he wasn't exactly happy. It might have been the fact that she didn't care, though. If anything, she was enjoying it.

'Perfect. I don't know what happened, but he's falling to pieces. Yuriko kept up her side of the bargain by the looks of it. He'll be putty in my lovely hands in no time,' she thought.

Akira leaned against the fence with a heavy sigh; the twins were taking ages to get there. In the mean time, he was avoiding all attempts at a conversation with the Kebai girl. Finally, after ten minutes, he spotted two boys heading towards them. They were arguing, as they usually did every time Akira saw them.

When they finally noticed Akira and Ami standing in front of the gate, they stopped bickering for a while to greet them enthusiastically. Yamazaki waved to Akira, before turning his attention completely on Ami. Umi, on the other hand, barely nodded in her direction, and focussed completely on Akira. The tall boy smiled at friendly brunette; he _really_ was a very nice guy.

Yamazaki cleared his throat to get their attention, and suggested that they head over to the biggest multi-floor shopping centre in town, because it also had a karaoke place nearby. They all agreed and headed into town by bike.

As soon as they got there and locked there bikes, they headed up the elevator to the third floor and wondered through the clothing stores. That is, until Akira's stomach growled embarrassingly and he announced that he wanted to stop for mamechichi. He had to mime it out when they looked hopelessly confused, and then opted instead to just show them.

"Oh, you mean 'tonyu'? Is mamechichi a brand of soy milk?" said Yamazaki curiously. Akira just shrugged and sipped his strawberry flavoured drink. 'It's not nearly as good here,' he thought sadly. They were sitting in a small ice-cream shop in between two accessories shops, and it could not compete with his beloved Hirayama Tofuten in Tokyo.

The girl sitting across from him watched him like a hawk. She had barely touched her glass of ice tea and seemed far more interested in Akira's face. It was making him severely uncomfortable. If it weren't for the fact that Umi felt the need to glare menacingly at her, she would never have stopped.

"So, Kusano-kun…" he said when she looked away, "Tell me more about you please! You hardly ever talk about yourself, and I want to get to know you, since we're friends now," he said with a smile. Akira cocked his head to the side while he continued to sip his milk in deep thought. "What do you want to know?"

Yamazaki ignored his brother's conversation with Akira and turned towards Ami. She was not looking very happy. "You okay?" he asked. She glared at him, but there wasn't as much malice in her voice as she had intended. "I'm fine." Yamazaki raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Um, can I talk to you in private for a sec?" he said. She rolled her eyes, but nodded and briefly glanced at Akira as she was led to another table.

"What is it?" she snapped when he stared at her rather than talking. "Sorry, I shouldn't have stared," he looked away. Yamazaki considered the best way to break the news to her.

"I don't think he's interested in you, you know…but I am," he said.

Ami's mouth hung open for a moment, before snapping shut. "How the hell do you know how he feels about me, he may just be shy!" she retorted. "And why the hell would I care if you like me? You're obviously not my type!"

He sighed. 'How can she be so in denial?' he wondered. She was still glaring at him, and he wondered why he couldn't help but like it. "Look, anyone can see the guy's depressed about something at the moment. You know what he's usually like. If the only one who can get him to even sort of smile right now is my idiot brother, and he ignores you, what makes you think he's interested? As for not being your type…I don't think 'rich' is a type. Don't you ever get tired of guys who only want sex? Come on, gimme a chance," he pleaded.

Her glare turned murderous. "Are you saying I'm a slut? I haven't slept with anyone, asshole. Just cause I want lots of money and clothes and presents doesn't mean any guy I've gone out with has gotten to third base! Forget it. I'm not going out with you."

"I didn't say you were. All I'm asking for is one single date. If you don't have fun, I'll leave you alone to chase hopelessly after that poor guy over there," he said, pointing to Akira. Said guy was laughing quietly at something his twin had said. Ami watched them with a scowl; she had never seen him smile sincerely at her before, and by the looks of it, wasn't going to soon.

"Fine. One date. One. If I don't have fun, you're never speaking to me ever again. Are we clear?" she said, not looking at his face.

Yamazaki smile warmly and reached for her hand. "Crystal clear. Don't worry, I promise I won't be boring."

Meanwhile, back at the table, Akira was being quizzed about his various food likes and dislikes. Umi was shocked to find out that there were people out there who considered takoyaki with syrup to be tasty. He didn't comment on it though, as apart from the bizarre quirks, he found himself falling for Akira's charm more and more every second. He decided to risk asking the boy why he still looked so sad.

Akira cringed; not again. Why did people not want to leave it alone? He just wanted to get over it and try to carry on with his life. But for some reason, he felt he could trust the brunette. The boy had said they could talk about anything any time of day if it was bothering him, and he decided to take Umi up on the offer.

"Heartbreak," he confessed, downing the last of his soy milk. "I had my heart broken last night, it's all in pieces and that guy has no idea…" he trailed off. He didn't notice the slip of tongue, but the boy next to him definitely did.

Umi's jaw dropped, but his eyes lit up with glee. "Eh?! 'That guy?!' I knew it! You like Kiritani, don't you?!" he said smugly. "I knew it. You're always with him…I get it now! He told you he wanted to date Yuriko and turned you down! That's why you're so sad!" Akira's eyes flew open in panic. 'Oh no. Nononono! I didn't mean for him to hear that part! I didn't mean for him to find out!' He scanned Umi's face worriedly. Was he going to tell anyone about this? Did he think of it as just a joke? Because he sure as hell didn't want his feelings talked about as a big joke.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," said Umi, as if he reading his mind. "But I'm going to need a little reward for being quiet though…" he said leaning forward till his nose was almost touching Akira's. Before the boy could wonder if he meant money or something, Umi closed the gap between them and pressed his lips against Akira's. Akira's eyes grew wider in shock.

__________________________________________________________________________

"Shuji! How bout this one? Doesn't it look great on me?"

Shuji groaned inwardly; why did he have to do this again? Oh yes…he was the victim of blackmail. He put on an interested-looking face and smiled at her, pretending to like the gaudy necklace she had just put on. Yuriko was enjoying every minute of it.

"Hn. Very cute. How bout this one? I think it looks even better than that," he said. He held out an even more questionable bracelet, chosen at random, for her inspection. "Ah! CHOU KAWAII! I love it! Get me both please, I can't choose!" she squealed excitedly. Shuji smiled and nodded. In his head, he waved goodbye to all his money.

'The accessories in this shop are so damn expensive. Why can't she have cheaper taste?' he thought bitterly. 'I need to get out of here. I'll die if I have to spend another moment listening to her voice. I need a distraction…" he look around, praying for something to save him. He looked out of the window of the shop and saw a group of school girl's come out of the ice-cream shop next door carrying sundaes and milkshakes. A light went on in Shuji's head. 'Ah! Ice-cream! I'll go get ice-cream while she browses!'

"Ah! I like this one too!" said Yuriko. Shuji smiled again and cleared his throat. "Ano...I need to go to the bathroom, but I'm gonna get some ice-cream on the way back. Do you want one?" She thought about it for a moment, nodded and went back to browsing. "Get me a low fat green tea with two scoops please."

He almost collapsed with relief, but maintained his composure and left the store. He was grateful for the reprieve. Shuji entered the door to the ice-cream store and stared at the menu for a couple minutes, not really paying attention to his surroundings. That is, until he heard a familiar voice.

"Kusano-kun…why aren't you smiling today? You've been looking gloomy all day. What's wrong?" Shuji's head turned in the direction the voice was coming from. 'Huh? 'Kusano?' Is he here?' he wondered. Sure enough, he spotted his best friend's face. The boy was sitting next to one of the twins Shuji had seen bothering Akira on the first day at school. He was sitting a little too close for comfort, although Akira didn't seem to notice. After all, he didn't seem to understand the concept of personal space very well.

Shuji felt a twinge of jealously and slipped into a booth nearby to listen to what they were saying. By the sounds of it, this guy was trying to get the truth out of Akira too. Shuji shook his head in sympathy. "It's not gonna work," he whispered himself. "If he won't tell me, what change do you have?"

As he predicted, Akira was staying silent. But seconds later, his eyes flew open in shock when the boy actually answered the question. "Heartbreak. I had my heart broken last night, it's all in pieces and that guy has no idea…"

Shuji stopped breathing for a moment. He couldn't believe his ears. 'What guy?! Someone broke his heart and he didn't tell me?!' He tried to calm down and went back to his eavesdropping. His hands were shaking

"Eh?! 'That guy?!' I knew it! You like Kiritani, don't you?! I knew it. You're always with him…I get it now! He told you he wanted to date Yuriko and turned you down! That's why you're so sad!" said the boy.

Shuji's breath hitched in panic.

'What?! No…that's not possible…Akira likes girls! He can't possibly like me!' But as much as he tried to deny it, it made sense; Akira had only started acting strange after that phone call to his dad, and he'd only gotten worse after his little speech about how he was completely in love with Yuriko. That was probably why Akira had avoided looking him in the face all day and had spoken to him as if he had done something terrible. Because he had.

"Fuck…fuckfuckfuckfuck!" he muttered under his breath. 'Why do things keep getting more and more complicated with him?' He was roused from his thoughts when Umi spoke again.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," said Umi, as if he reading his mind. "But I'm going to need a little reward for being quiet though…"he said with a smirk. Shuji watched in horror as Umi's eyes closed and he pressed his lips against Akira, his best friend…and the subject of his fantasies. 'No…no!' thought Shuji. 'No!'

"So, why don't I help you forget about him? Let me fix your heart for you…so I can see that lively side of yours again," said Umi, brushing a lock of hair away from Akira's confused brown eyes.

**O**

**O**

**O**

**To Be Continued…**

_I'm completely dead. Even though it didn't take too long to post this time, this chapter was so difficult to write because of all the details I had to put in, and all the dialogue turned out a little iffy. Once again, this is a tiny bit longer than usual. But I did say I'd try to finish this as soon as possible. It was mostly because of the nice reviews though, so please keep reviewing if you want me to update again soon. (For LJ readers, I will post this in my own journal from now on.) And once I remember his name, I will tell you who the twins are supposed to look like (all I know is, he's really cute)._


	7. Beloved Fools

**A Mystery to the Both of Them**

**Title:** A Mystery to the Both of Them

**Chapter: **Beloved Fools

**Series: **Nobuta wo Produce

**Pairing: **Shuji to Akira. The Show-off and the Fool.

**Genre:** Humour and Romance, Angst too.

**Rating: **PG-13, soon to rise. (Smut approaching in near future)

**Dedicated to:** The remaining readers. x.x I think most of you left after the first few chapters due to my dodgy, overly-flamboyant writing, long chapters and long waits between updates.

**Warning: **Uke!Akira, seme!Shuji, because I like it that way. Although it's more of a seke pairing, personality wise.

**DISCLAIMER:** Maybe I should have put this up before…I don't own Nobuta wo Produce or any of it's characters, but I do own all original ideas and characters in this, which means **Sadako, Ami, Hayashiko Esumi, Watari Yamazaki and Umi, and Yuriko are mine.** **Kindly DO NOT plagiarize, or I cease posting this fic.**

**A/N: **I seriously struggled on the title for this one, which is weird because all the other chapter names came easily. I toyed with "Welcome to the Pressure-Cooker," "The Point of No Return," "The Confrontation of Conflicting Ideals", and even "Love is like the Autobahn." XD I kinda liked the last one. Wow, six chapters and eighty-seven pages already. At time of writing this, I think there is this chapter, plus another one or two still to go. I think I mentioned it in previous chapters, but there will definitely be smut. I said before that I'd tell you who the twins looked like. Well, (those of you reading this on ) just look up Narimiya Hiroki on google and you'll see who I mean.

_**Beloved Fools**_

"_Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," said Umi, as if he reading his mind. "But I'm going to need a little reward for being quiet though…"he said with a smirk. Shuji watched in horror as Umi's eyes closed and he pressed his lips against Akira, his best friend…and the subject of his fantasies. _

'_No…no!' thought Shuji. 'No!'_

"_So, why don't I help you forget about him? Let me fix your heart for you…so I can see that lively side of yours again," said Umi, brushing a lock of hair away from Akira's confused brown eyes._

* * *

Shuji's heart felt like a pin cushion. It was stinging like never before, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene in front of him. He gritted his teeth as he watched the guy stroking Akira's hair lovingly. He was hit with another emotional cocktail. Shuji felt stupid, blind, angry and more alone than ever before. He couldn't believe he had gone through all that trouble to conceal his feelings for Akira out of fear for their friendship, only to hear that Akira felt the exact same way, and watch someone _else_ kiss him.

Shuji felt an urge to rip that Umi guy's head off. Where did he get off kissing someone he'd only just met? Especially after Akira had told him the truth. He cursed; how the hell did that guy get him to open up? What the hell made him so special? He probably just wanted Akira's newly acquired influence and his money. The thought sickened Shuji.

"What do you say, Akira-kun? Will you please go out with me? I would never break your heart, you know," said Umi. Akira was still frozen in one spot, although the corner of his mouth was twitching like it did when he was really nervous.

But the boy was saved from having to answer when the other two people returned to the table. Luckily for Shuji, they hadn't noticed him turn away and hide his face behind a menu. They would most likely have seen him and forced him (and the girl waiting next door) to join them. He didn't think he could handle it, after all that.

He ducked out of the shop and into the accessory store where his date was waiting for him. 'Shit,' he thought, 'I don't have ice-creams with me…but I can't go back in there. I don't think I can even stand to keep this up for another hour. I have to get out of here!'

"Shuji-kun! …Where is my ice-cream? I thought you were going to get me one?" said Yuriko when he tapped her on the shoulder. She was covered in tacky jewellery and looked annoyed at having to wait so long for nothing. He scrambled to think of an excuse so he could escape as quickly as possible.

"Ah! Well…I'm sorry. I…I have a stomach ache, so I completely forgot your ice-cream. I'm not really feeling well, so I think it's maybe a good idea if I leave now," he said with a pained face. "I don't want to ruin your day." She looked even more annoyed at his explanation and when she spoke, her voice was curt. "Really? Well, okay. I guess if you have to leave then, you should leave. I'll call you later, okay?" She was not pleased at the momentary relief that flashed across his face before he nodded, waved, and left her in the store. "See you tomorrow!"

'There's something weird going on here,' she thought bitterly. 'He was so nice before, and so quick to call me, but now he's leaving really fast. What the hell is his problem?!'

* * *

"…so apparently, that Sadako girl stormed out of school this morning," said Yamazaki. They were browsing through a hat store, having decided that done of them felt like karaoke. Akira was fidgeting with a beanie and trying to figure out what to do about Umi's confession. "Apparently, someone said something to her and she ran out of the class screaming something about being betrayed twice."

"Huh. Stupid girl. I never did figure out why Yuri-chan let her hang out with us," said Ami, dropping two hats onto the growing pile in Yamazaki's arms. "Honestly, she only ever got on our nerves and wouldn't know fun if it hit her in the face! It's a good thing we let her go." She added another hat and a pair of big sunglasses to the pile. Yamazaki was grinning as if nothing could faze him anymore. Not even his brother, who seemed equally euphoric at that moment.

Umi was staring at Akira as they walked through the isles of the shop, causing the boy to crash into the occasional display. Akira winced and crouched, rubbing his soon-to-be bruised knee. The guy was seriously starting to make him nervous, especially after that inconvenient confession that came out of the blue. He had thought Umi only wanted friendship, nothing more. Evidently, he was very wrong about that. Suddenly, all that smile-winking made perfect sense.

"Akira-kun, is something wrong with your knee?" said Umi, voice laced with worry. "Can you walk, or would you like to lean on my shoulder?" He squatted down besides him and softly rubbed his aching knee. Akira looked at him briefly, before tearing him eyes away. Really, the guy was nice, good-looking, kind and funny, but he still needed time to think things over. He had only just had his heart broken by Shuji, and a wound of the heart did not heal in a day. "N-no. It's fine. I can walk; it just hurts a little bit, that's all."

"Okay. If you say so…" Akira did not miss the tinge of disappointment in the boy's voice. He had most likely wanted a reason to be a little closer to him. Akira gulped and got up, walking after the other two. Ami was loudly complaining about something insignificant and Yamazaki was wobbling under the weight of the clothing. Akira wondered for the fourth time that hour why he had agreed to go with.

* * *

As soon as he got home, Shuji rushed up to his room and locked the door behind him. He couldn't believe it. This had to be another fucked up dream. A really long one, the kind where you didn't wake up at the worst part and pinching yourself didn't work. How else could he explain everything that happened in the last two hours?

He collapsed on his bed and buried his face into the pillow. "What the hell is this?! Everything I'm doing is for him, and then he says he likes me and I broke his heart. What the hell?!" he yelled into the pillow. "Why do I have to deal with this shit?!" he screamed at the feathery mass.

For a couple minutes, all he did was lie there. The corners of his eyes started to itch and burn and when he raised his fingers to rub them, he was surprised to find that his cheek was wet, and that it was getting wetter by the second. 'Huh? W-what? Again? Unbelievable…I can't stop crying!' He shoved his face back into the pillow, leaving a growing wet stain on the fabric. His lips quivered with despair. "Just because I didn't know how he felt and I screwed everything up…I shouldn't be crying!" As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized how blindly stupid he had been, and something in him snapped. He started bawling.

'What is this?! Why can I never catch a break?!' he wondered bitterly. 'I thought…I thought he would just be glad for me if I dated someone else…why did it have to be that guy who made him tell the truth? If he knew…then why the hell is he trying to steal Akira away from me?!" he yelled. His eyes widened at that statement. He couldn't believe he had just said that, and the strength of his bitterness hit him like a speeding truck. But that didn't mean he felt guilty about it.

Resentment coiled around his mind, clouding his thoughts. It didn't matter if Umi had confessed first; Akira was _his_ best friend and _his_ biggest annoyance and…_** his**_. What made him so special that he made Akira open his heart and let him kiss him like that? It seriously pissed Shuji off. A small part of him was angry at Akira for not telling him the truth, but a much bigger part of him felt jealousy that someone other than him had kissed the lips he wanted so badly to taste for himself.

'God…I'm such a mess,' he thought as he sat up and wiped the remaining tears from his eyes. He stuck his head under the pillow again to drown out the image of that kiss. He prayed silently that some merciful god would strike him down with a lightening bolt right there.

* * *

He was falling fast, spiralling towards a familiar ground. Shuji hoped he wouldn't hit that chair that had come into view and was growing larger and larger as he tumbled down. Just as he was starting to worry that he was going to die, his body started to slow down. Shuji was now drifting slowly sideways like a large feather, and he breathed a sigh of relief as the ground drew closer.

His body slowed down even more, and very softly, he landed in the chair that had been worrying him. It was thankfully, very comfortable. Shuji looked around frantically for some sort of explanation. The realization dawned and he groaned audibly; he was dreaming another one of those damn dreams again. As he waited for the inevitable approach of his morally questionable doppelganger, Shuji's fingernails dug themselves into the arms of the chair out of apprehension.

A few seconds later, his nightmarishly dressed self walked out of thin air an said with a pout, "Oi, you're in my chair." Shuji glared at his Libido self. He was pretty sure a psychologist would probably have something to say about the fact that he was sub-dividing himself. "I'm not getting up until you explain why you're putting me through all this shit!"

Shuji's Libido shrugged as if to say "Suit yourself," and sat down on his lap. An angry growl rumbled in Shuji's chest as he tried in vain to dislodge the leather clad figure on his lap. Eventually, he gave up and slouched in the chair. He avenged his pride a little bit by glaring furiously.

"I'm not putting you through anything. If you weren't so damn self-repressive or constantly second-guessing your feelings, you wouldn't be in this mess now, would you?" His libido blew softly on it's nails and buffed them on a shirt that looked more like black saran-wrap wound around a torso than a piece of clothing. Shuji lay in the chair like a ragdoll and brooded silently as he watched his own image.

Libido Shuji smirked down at him and wiggled his ass sadistically against Shuji's crotch. "Wanna try an interesting new form of masturbation?" he said, wiggling his eyebrows at Shuji. He was not amused, and finally succeeded in pushing his Libido off his leg. Libido Shuji pouted and stood up. "You're no fun."

Shuji's glare turned murderous; he was not in the mood for this. "Look, could you just back off for a while? It's hard enough trying to figure out how to deal with Akira without you."

The only answered Shuji received was a sad smile and a head shake. His Libido was tired of being tied to such a frustrating person. All he wanted to do was help the guy get laid, and possibly get him a boyfriend. Was that so wrong? "I can't help that you can't reach out and grab what's right in front of you. And now you're miserable. Whose fault is that? Didn't I tell you to go after the Pouty-Lipped One? And now, Shuji, not only have you insulted and pushed him away, but you also have a rival. Way to go."

"Shut up!" Shuji groaned, annoyed that a figment of his imagination was right. He knew should have said something, popularity and consequences for friendship be damned. They had already reached a point where their relationship would never be the same again, even if all the crap happening to him went away. Because now he knew his feelings for Akira were not one-sided.

"Look, I know I'm just here to control your sex-drive and all, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be of any use to you that way at this point, so let me at least give you some advice. Stop hesitating, you idiot. Go get him before someone else does. Get rid of that annoying chick; that won't go anywhere and you know it."

As Shuji was about to open his mouth to yell that he had absolutely no intention of staying with Yuriko, he was pulled out of his dream violently by the sensation of being shaken by shoulders. He opened his eyes groggily to stare at his attacker. It was Koji. "Nii-san! Dinner!"

He glared at his little brother; he had locked the door, and yet here he was, being shaken awake by the cheerful boy. "How did you get in here? I made sure that door was locked," he asked irritably. Koji answered his question by grinning and dangling a small key on a loop in Shuji's face. "Spare key from dad. When you didn't answer the door, dad got worried and gave me the spare key. Here," he said, passing Shuji the tiny key. Shuji took it and followed his brother to the dinner table.

"Tousan…is Akira back yet?" he asked nervously. He looked around but there was neither sight nor sound of the boy, which either meant he was avoiding Shuji or he wasn't back yet. His father shook his head. "Nope. Haven't seen him yet. Weird, I thought he always came home with you…did he have something to do, or did you have a fight?" he asked curiously.

"Hn. Both. He's hanging out with friends."

"Ah, really? Ha…I was starting to think neither of you had other friends here, since you're always together. Hahaha…one would almost think you two were dating!" the man laughed, patting his son on the shoulder. "Although…a fight isn't good. You should hurry up and clear things up. It's not good to let things like that hang in the air. Especially not when he's living with us for the time being." When Shuji didn't answer, his father went back to dishing mackerel into his plate.

Shuji thought about how miserable Akira had looked that day, and knowing that he had caused it sucked. Just then all the words he had yelled at the boy came rushing back and he visibly paled.

"_**I can see I'm not gonna get any answer from you. You wanna move out? Fine by me. You're starting to overstay your welcome anyway. Have fun with your new friends; maybe they'll understand what the hell is wrong with you, because I sure as hell don't."**_

"Oh god…" he thought, resting his head on the table miserably. "What the hell have I done?" Dinner, as one might expect, was not an all too pleasant experience that night. Shuji barely touched his food, and had to give it to Koji, who was only too happy to eat it for him. Akira never showed up, and it was only later when the phone rang that Shuji found out why.

"Moshi moshi?" he said. Shuji's jaw clenched when he heard the voice on the other end of the phone answer. "_Ah! Kiritani-san! It's Umi, from school._" Shuji fought to keep his voice steady; it would be bad if he lost his temper and started screaming when the guy had no idea why he was so angry yet. "Yes?" he said through gritted teeth. "What is it?"

There was a pause at the other end before someone in the background laughed loudly and dropped something fragile-sounding. Shuji realised that it was the laugh that had been imprinted into his brain almost a year ago. The annoying, un-restrained amused laugh that belonged to Kusano Akira. He gulped, just as a voice came back to the phone. "_Uh sorry. I just wanted to tell you that Akira-kun says he's gonna stay with us tonight, and not to wait for him._"

He swallowed the lump that he hadn't noticed forming in his throat.

Akira wasn't coming home tonight. He was going to stay with Shuji's rival. The guy who kissed Akira before Shuji could. The one human being that Shuji hated even more than Esumi at that moment. His eyes closed and his mind went numb. His lip trembled slightly.

"_Uh…hello? Kiritani-san? Are you there?_" said Umi. The boy had to repeat himself several times before Shuji finally snapped out of it and answered him. "Yes, I'm here. Can I speak to Akira please?" he said firmly. Surely there must be some mistake. Akira couldn't possibly be choosing someone else over him, could he? He had to know.

"_Sure, I'll put him on the phone…Akira…Akira…Akira! He wants to talk to you…hahaha, sure! I'll get you some more. I'll be right back,_" came Umi's voice on the other end, before it was replaced by Akira's. "_Moshi mooooooooooshi? Shu-shuji?"_ His voice was slurred – more so than usual.

"Akira…I…y-you… um…why aren't you coming back here tonight?" Shuji finished lamely. He couldn't think straight, and he wasn't in any mood for any kind of phone conversations with anyone, including Akira. Light giggles were heard on the other end of the line. "_Can't. Not now Shu--Shuji. Toooo drunk. So Akira's g-gonna stay here, out of Shuji's way, ne…"_he trailed off. After a few seconds, Umi's voice was back. "_Sorry to call you this late, but he just wanted me to let you know, so you didn't think something happened. Such a thoughtful guy…"_

"Hn," said Shuji. "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

"_Yeah. That's it. Have a good nig-"_ came Umi's voice, before Shuji ended the call and slammed the phone back into its cradle. He was fuming, so much so that he found it hard to see anything clearly. He ran back to his room and slammed the door loudly, before once again falling onto his bed.

Unbidden, images came flooding into his head. A half-unconscious Akira reached out for Umi, not able to see straight or do anything to stop the guy from pinning both of his hands and undoing all his shirt and pants buttons with his teeth. Shuji paled as the images intensified. To his horror, he imagined a completely naked Akira tied to a table, unaware that he was about to be taken advantage of by a grinning sicko.

'No, damn it! Akira's not like that! He's not some wimpy little girl-thing. He breaks tiles with his hands for gods' sakes! He'd never let anyone do anything like that!' he thought frantically. He was trying to calm down. Images from a few days ago resurfaced; Akira with his limbs restrained by multiple people trying to strip him. He nearly choked on air. Those had just been a few crazy, desperate fans; Akira was at that very moment drunk and in the company of someone who was definitely attracted to him and sounded very sober over the phone.

Shuji grabbed a pillow and climbed under his covers, shutting out all noise and squeezing his eyes tightly shut. He wanted to block every thought out. 'It's not going to happen, it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen,' was the mantra he chanted. After several minutes, he wished he had chosen one that wasn't so damn ironic.

* * *

"Is it really okay for me to sleep here, Umi-chan?" said Akira, holding his head in the palms of his hands. "I don't want to be a bother…" he mumbled. He was sitting with his arms hooked around his knees and trying to stop the world from spinning any faster than it already was. He had drunk a little too much in an attempt to forget about the last year of his life.

Umi smiled and patted him on the back. "Sure. I can't leave you wondering the streets, and I don't think either of us would find Kiritani-kun's house in this state." He laughed, and sat down next to the boy. "So, since you're obviously so hung-up on him, why don't you tell me what's going on? So I know if I should even be trying…please, tell me about him…"

Akira looked guiltily up at Umi. He was flattered, really he was. But he was still crazy in-love with Shuji and it wasn't right to skip to someone so quickly just because they were there and wanted you. He wasn't that kind of person. He looked back down at his knees and sighed heavily.

"I've known him since we went to school together in Tokyo. We were in the same class. I don't know why I fell for him, but I fell hard," he said. He paused briefly to see if Umi was listening; he was. "He was always with other people, but somehow, he always stuck out for me. I always felt something was a little off with him. Like he was hiding sofmething from them. "Well…I was right. Whenever I tried to come close, he always got annoyed and tried to walk away. Out of all the people in our school he was friends with, I was not included. I think I made him nervous," he laughed a little then, but it was empty and sad.

"After a while, he just stopped bothering to walk away from me and just listened to me. I realised that this was what he was really like. It sounds kinda weird but…" he laughed again. This time it was a more cheerful laugh. A laugh of amusement and embarrassment. Umi raised an eyebrow and laughed with him. "What?"

"It made me feel good knowing that someone wasn't trying to bullshit me, but only did that with me. After that, I insisted he be my friend. He didn't want to at first, but he stopped trying to ignore me and turn me away. After Nobuta came to school, it just sort of…happened. We became friends. But…it wasn't enough," he said sadly.

Umi nodded, and urged him to go on. Akira sighed and continued. "Getting to see what he was really like made me want more of him. It got to the point where I thought 'I can't do this. Having him as a friend is better than having him give up on me completely.' I tried liking Nobuta. She seemed like the best choice; cute, kind, shy and smart. I told myself that if she was my girlfriend, I could be comfortable about Shuji. If I had her, I wouldn't need his love. But…I couldn't. Everything I tried just made things worse. I nearly threw Shuji's tape away just to prove I could do it. I made her _cry_." He paused so he could breath properly again.

"Even after I told him that lie, he still wanted to help me get over her. It was so hard…yelling her name into the PA when I just wanted to yell Shuji's…" Akira swallowed hard and looked to Umi for his reaction. The boy's face was sympathetic and he was listened to every word.

"And when he said he was moving, I just sat there and wished he was lying. You have no idea how much it hurt. Just when I thought I could maybe tell him…he decided to leave. I almost lost my nerve. If it hadn't been for Nobuta, I wouldn't be here," he finished. They were both silent for a few minutes. Umi had no idea what to say, and Akira didn't want to speak. But eventually the moment passed.

"How does he feel about you now?" Umi said quietly. Akira looked up in confusion, head still fuzzy from the booze. "What do you mean? He's going out with someone!"

"Doesn't matter, Akira. Have you asked him how he feels about you?" he asked again. The other boy shook his head, but stopped when it made him dizzier. "I don't know. Shuji-kun has been acting weird lately, and he's angry with Akira. Shuji-kun told Akira he has overstayed his welcome." He looked down sadly and bit his lip. He couldn't believe Shuji had reacted like that over nothing, but he really did not want to start crying in front of Umi.

Umi grimaced; he really cared for Akira, and the boy did not deserve to be treated like shit by his best friend. "Well, then we'll just have to see how he really feels about you. I have an idea…"

"What kind of idea?" Akira asked suspiciously.

"I'll help you test him. If he feels anything other than friendship for you, he'll definitely react. Trust me, we'll know by the end of tomorrow. If he doesn't like you that way, I would like you to give me a chance please. That's all I want - a chance. In the mean time, I think you should go to sleep. We still have school tomorrow," said Umi.

He pulled out an extra futon for Akira and some bedding, setting it up for him. Although he fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow, Akira did not sleep well that night.

Umi watched him toss and turn for over an hour, wishing that he could just comfort the boy without there being any discomfort between them. He had learned his lesson when Akira had avoided touching him for the whole afternoon after he made the mistake of kissing him so soon. He sighed and closed his eyes, a little happy about his plan for the next day.

* * *

When Shuji biked to school the next day, his mood had not improved. Sleep had not cured him of the urge to kill the guy who was trying to steal Akira away from him. When he met the usual group of irritating fangirls and fanboys at the front gates, he forcibly pushed his way through the crowd and threw open the front door with a loud bang. He stormed through the hallway and dropped all his belongings in his locker, before marching himself into the classroom.

He was half an our early, so he spent most of his time staring out the window at the ocean. Shuji was vaguely annoyed at how calm the waves looked; he wanted to see something as stormy and frightening as his mood. But he was distracted from the sea-view by the reflection of Akira in the window, with a hand around his waist.

Shuji swung around in horror to face his friend and his rival. Umi had his hand around Akira and a wide smile on his face. The smug smile of a kid who had just gotten a huge pile of candy. Akira seemed far too happy about standing next to the twin and was even flirting with Umi.

Shuji felt bile rise in his throat; he knew something terrible would happen, and here it was. He watched Akira giggle and kon Umi's ear. It was making his heart race uncomfortably, as if he was on the verge of a heart-attack.

"U~mi-kun…I want to stay with you from now on," said Akira, grabbing the boy's hand and entwining their fingers. Shuji's stomach lurched; what the hell was going on? Only yesterday Akira had been an emotional wreck who froze when Umi kissed him, and now he was acting all cutesy and saying he wanted to move in? Without even asking him?

'What the hell is wrong with him?! I've gone through all this shit and he wants to replace me with that guy?!' he thought as his heart raced. "Kiritani-san, ano…" said a small girl to his right. He looked at her in surprise. "Yes?"

"Is it true that you and Kusano-sama had a fight and broke up?" She sounded really nervous. Shuji looked behind her to find three girls behind her urging her on. Shuji was really, really surprised. "We…we were never together…where did you hear that?" he asked quizzically.

"N-nowhere! Well, we-" she gestured to her friends, "we just thought...and I heard from someone that Kusano-sama is always at your house and stuff!"

"Ah…well, no. We're not like that. We're just not…speaking very much right now." The girl nodded and scampered back to her desk. Clearly her courage had just run out. Shuji turned to see what Akira was doing, but the boy seemed to have left the class along with Umi. He sighed and sat down.

In the hallway, Akira was standing in a corner with Umi, whispering. "Did you see his face? Did he look jealous? Or angry? Ne, did he?" Akira asked desperately. Umi shrugged. "I don't know. I was a little hard to see. We should go back and keep going. It's too early to know yet." Umi secretly prayed he could do this all day.

Akira sighed, but pulled Umi towards the class with him again. He was determined once and for all to find out what Shuji's opinion of him was, even if it has irreversible consequences. It was better than the damned silence and obliviousness. He noted with a tinge of amusement that Shuji looked annoyed about something.

He pulled Umi over to his desk, and after making a deal with the person that sat on Akira's right, sat down and started flirting again. "Akira, do you want to come to the mall with me later? I'm in the mood for ice-cream again. I'll even get you some of that strawberry soymilk you seem to like so much," the twin said loud enough for Shuji to hear. Akira was pretending not to have seen him yet.

Shuji's patience was running out. He had no idea why Akira was all over Umi, but he had had enough. He cleared his throat and tapped Akira on the shoulder. "Oi, aren't you going to even greet me?" he said with annoyance.

Akira looked up at him and said a quiet "Ohayo," before turning awkwardly back to Umi to talk about the events. Shuji nearly had a heart attack. Akira wasn't paying any attention to him. His eyes widened as he stared straight ahead of him. 'This isn't happening. I'm still stuck in that dream,' he thought desperately.

For half of the class, he barely moved as he listened to Akira whispering things that stabbed at his heart like wasp stings. He hadn't even turned his head, but he could tell that Akira was smiling widely as he talked and flirted with Umi. Just when Shuji thought he couldn't handle another second, Akira scribbled a note and slipped it onto Shuji's desk.

_AKIRA WILL COME BY SHUJI'S HOUSE LATER TO PICK UP HIS STUFF. KONKON ^^_

Shuji swallowed hard and wrote on the back of the note, before placing it on Akira's desk with a shaking hand.

_Okay. But please meet me at lunch first. Please, Akira. Alone. I'll meet you in that music room. –Shuji_

For the rest of the class, and all the other classes before lunch, all three of them were silent. Akira was nervously hoping that his act with Umi was having any affect at all on Shuji. Umi was hoping Shuji was uninterested, unlikely as it was.

In another part of the school, two girls were skipping class. Yuriko was leaning against the wall with a cigarette in one hand to calm her nerves, as Ami explained how her trip to the mall the day before went.

"You know, I think I made a better choice. Yamazaki is kinda cute. And he's got a job, so I get all the stuff I want when we go shopping. Even if his name is kinda odd, with the whole family name as his first name thing…he's better than Kusano though. Man, I didn't know how weird that guy was till yesterday. Usually he just looks kinda happy and stupid, but he just looked depressed yesterday."

Yuriko took a drag from her cigarette as she listened to Ami. 'Maybe that's why Kiritani was acting so weird on our date. Fuck, he must have been trying to ditch me to go talk to that guy. I knew he was lying…'she thought irritably. 'I'm going to have to talk to him later.'

"So yeah, I'm giving up on Kusano. How did your date go?" said Ami. Yuriko cringed, crushing her cigarette butt out with her foot. "Fine. It went fine." She walked back into the building without glancing back at Ami's confused expression.

Shuji was pacing back and forth nervously as he waited for Akira. It was driving him crazy that it was taking so long. Lunch had started ten minutes ago and there was still no sign of the boy.

He leaned his face against the window, and spotted an unwelcome face in the tree. Esumi. He gave her the finger and quickly shut the curtains so that not a crack of light was visible. Outside the girl got out of the tree and stomped away irritably. Things were not going as planned. Maybe later she'd give him a call.

Shuji breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the familiar sounds of Akira's footsteps. Sure enough, when Shuji opened the door, it was his friend's face that greeted him. "Akira!" he yelled, pulling the boy in desperately and shutting the door behind him. "Shuji," Akira answered.

For a moment, Shuji just stared at him. He had no idea why things had all flipped so drastically in the last few days, but he wished they had never left Tokyo. Sure, several fantastic memories of them hanging out together would have been lost, but at least he wouldn't feel so lost, confused and angry all the time. "What's going on with you and Umi?" he asked finally.

Akira smiled slightly and looked away. "Why, Shuji? Does~it~bother~you? That I like someone? Because I do. I really do like Umi-chan." Shuji's heart stung again. "L-like?! You LIKE him? Impossible! Him?! A GUY?! THAT guy? And you only just met him!" he choked out. His pulse sped up again, and his face hardened. "You can't date him. Absolutely not!"

Akira's smile disappeared as he looked Shuji in the eyes. His tongue poked the inside of his cheek in annoyance. "Shuji…what part about this is it that makes you so angry? "That I like a guy? Or that I like Umi?" he asked.

Shuji trembled as soon as the words left Akira's mouth. Of course he didn't care if Akira liked guys. He didn't care about Umi that much either, as much as he hated him. No, what Shuji disliked most was the idea of Akira liking anyone who wasn't him. "I…I…mean…it's…he's not a good guy. I can tell he wants to do weird things to you. That's not right," he tried to explain.

The other boy laughed mirthlessly, clapping his hands. Then he stopped suddenly. "Ii desu yo. It's completely fine with me."

Shuji gaped; what the hell had he just said? How could he be fine with that? Did he not care at all about things anymore?

Akira laughed again. "It's fine if he wants to do weird things to me. If he likes me and I like him, its fine isn't it? It should be pretty fun, too. Besides, we're both guys, so there's nothing to be worried about." He noted Shuji's face turning paler and paler by the second. 'Ah…he must be disgusted by me…' Akira thought sadly.

Shuji could barely think anymore. "This is not happening…" he whispered. He watched Akira's face for a sign that this was just some kind of sick joke on his behalf. Akira tilted his head to the side. "Yes, it is. Because I want it to." With that, the boy turned to leave him behind, with a heart that felt just as broken as Shuji's.

Despite his shaking body and voice, Shuji manage to stop the boy. "Ch-chotto matte. Akira…" he said. He closed the gap between them hesitantly and gave him a light peck on the lips. Akira's mouth hung open, but rather feeling any relief, he frowned heavily. 'He's just trying to make me not stop being friends with him. He doesn't actually care. That kiss meant nothing.' He clenched his jaw and fists and turned to leave again.

But before he could go, and before Shuji knew what the hell he was doing, a strong grip caught Akira's arm and pulled the boy into a tight hug. "You idiot…"

Akira didn't have enough time to register the shock, or the arms around him as Shuji's lips met his own once more. "You absolute moron! Do you hate me or something?!" he screamed at the boy's face, before crushing Akira's lips again. He kissed hard and held Akira tightly in his arms, refusing to let go.

Neither boy breathed for about a minute, as Shuji kissed desperately at Akira's lips. His hand moved from being around Akira's waist to the back of his neck and in his hair. He kissed wildly, not caring if Akira was really dating someone else or not. All he knew was that the only thing he wanted, they only thing he _needed_ at that moment was to devour Akira's mouth. He kissed him as if the taste of Akira's lips was the sole thing keeping him alive.

As soon as the shock began to fade, Akira returned the kiss. He gave way to the tongue that was swiping his bottom lip, begging for entrance. Akira's legs crumpled as Shuji wrapped one of his own around them and both boys came crashing down hard. They didn't break apart even as they fell and Shuji was determined to keep going if his life depended on it.

"Nhmmph!" Akira moaned as Shuji nibbled on his bottom lip, before slowly kissing his eyelids, cheeks, nose, jaw and neck. Akira moaned again softly as Shuji dragged his lips lightly across his neck. "Shuji…" he whispered. "Please…don't…I…don't play with my feelings! I'm...nnn…AH! Not…joking! I'm serious!" he managed.

"WHAT. THE. FUCK!" boomed a voice from the doorway. Shuji tore his eyes away from Akira's neckline to see who it was. His eyes shot open. Yuriko. He jumped up away from Akira. Her glare was venomous enough to make Shuji cringe under its' intensity. She walked slowly into the classroom towards him, only briefly glancing down at Akira in disgust.

"What the fuck are you doing, Shuji? What the fuck. Are. You. Doing. With. Him?" she said, punctuating each word with a hard slap to his face. He winced slightly and closed his eyes in pain but didn't say a word. He understood completely why she was pissed. After all, he had a history of letting girls down. Annoying as she was, she probably didn't deserve this.

"You fucker…I knew it…I knew that there was something weird going on between you two!" she screamed. Akira looked at Shuji in fear and ran out the door. "Akira! Wait!" Shuji called after him. But by the time he got to the door, Akira was already gone.

Yuriko grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him round. "Okay, Shuji. Look. Either you lose that touchy fruitcake, or I'm gone. And trust me, I can make your life fucking suck," she said with a sugarsweet smile.

'Not as much as your cousin though,' he though privately. 'What the hell is with all the evil genes in this family? Did they breed with demons or something? Damn…I'm never going to get another second of peace, am I? And I was so close…'

He sighed in resignation. "Him. I choose him."

Yuriko smiled and pulled him into a suffocating, uncomfortable hug and laughed her ear torturing laugh. "Yes! I knew you wouldn't want to let go of me! I knew it!"

For a second he just glared at her in disgust and annoyance, and then pushed her off. He had seriously had enough.

"No, I mean I'm keeping him. You can go. To be completely honest, I can't stand you. I really, really can't. Don't believe for a second I would have chosen you over him, no matter how inconvenient he can be sometimes. You don't know shit about either of us. I don't care if you like me or not, and I don't care how popular you are, and I don't care how miserable you plan to make me. You know what? Join the club; I'm sure it's huge by now, with all the people that just seem to love trying to fuck up my life. We're over and I. Choose. Him."

Yuriko stared at him in shock. "What?"

"Shoo, go, leave. Preferably now."

She backed away from the boy, shaking her head in disbelief. "How…how could you not chose me? How?!"

Shuji rolled his eyes as he watched her retreat. As soon as she turned to run out of the room, he called after her, "Because you're nothing like Akira, and will never be even half as good to me as he is." As the sound of the last of her footsteps died away, Shuji sat down and put his head in his hands in frustration. "What the hell am I gonna do now?" he thought aloud.

**O**

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**To Be Continued...**

_Um…well, it's progressing, at least. Man, I don't have all the bits entirely figured out yet, but rest assured, the resolution of the story is near. The is a chapter or two still to go, and the second one will probably be shorter. There will be pr0n. I would like to thank those who are still reading this for holding on. I'm a bad writer (in both skill, and treatment of readers) and I have no excuse for it. I'll try to update sooner rather than later, especially since I won't have much to do in the near future. Thanks for the patience guys. Aren't you happy they finally kissed, at least?_


	8. DEAR READERS

Dear Readers,

I realise I have not posted in a very long time. I'm sure many of you have given up on this by now and I honestly can't blame you. I've been working on this for close to three and a half years. But it's been fun, and I AM going to finish A Mystery to the Both of Them. In fact, I'm putting the finishing touches on the second to last piece, working out the literal and proverbial kinks. For those of you that are still there, I thank you for your patients, your attention, and your wonderful comments. I love you all my darlings!

Sincerely,

~PuppyWithSharpTeeth~


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